Baton Rouge to New Orleans: Distance, Driving, By Plane, Train or Bus

Situated on the banks of the Mississippi River, Baton Rouge has a lot of old world charm and yet is very cosmopolitan. The multicultural city displays historic influences of Spanish, French, African and American Indian. The cuisine, architecture, art, and music all display the rich heritage that makes up Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge is Louisiana's state capital and home to Louisiana State University. If you want to try something different, visit Baton Rouge.

New Orleans, along the shores of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, is also a city with strong multicultural influences. Renowned for its annual Mardi Gras celebration, New Orleans also has a history embedded in French, Spanish and Native American cultures. Early American history is also prevalent as New Orleans was keenly involved in the Civil War. Another well know fact about New Orleans is its battle against Mother Nature. Being the focal point of hurricanes throughout history, one of the most notable is Katrina; New Orleans has stood its ground and fought back each and every time. New Orleans offers adventure, exploration, celebration, old world charm, modern appeal and something for everyone. What is the distance between Baton Rouge to New Orleans? About 80 miles. CDC information for travelers. Hours/availability may have changed.

Baton Rouge to New Orleans: Distance, Driving, By Plane, Train or Bus

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Attraction Spotlight: USS Kidd (DD-661)

Docked in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USS Kidd (DD-661) is a United States Navy Fletcher-class destroyer ship that served in World War II and the Korean War. USS Kidd (DD-661) was commissioned in the spring of 1943, named in honor of Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, the first United States flag officer to be killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and sponsored by his widow.

Before her entrance into battle in the Pacific theater during World War II, the ship’s crew commissioned a local New York City artist to paint a pirate logo on her forward smokestack, playing off of the ship’s name similarity to famed pirate captain William Kidd.

History

Throughout the remainder of World War II, the ship served as part of nearly all of the important naval campaigns in the Pacific, including the Gilbert and Marshall Islands invasions and the campaign at Okinawa. She was decommissioned after her World War II service in 1946, but returned to service in 1951 as part of the American forces in the Korean War. Upon return home from the Korean War, Kidd suffered a collision with Swedish freighter Hainan, causing a need for repairs that put her out of service until the spring of 1953. From 1953 through 1959, Kidd patrolled locations in the Pacific, including ports in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Throughout the early 1960s, she assisted with the Berlin Crisis and patrol of the Caribbean during the Cold War. In June 1964, she was decommissioned and berthed at Philadelphia Shipyard.

After her decommission, Kidd was selected as one of three Fletcher-class warships to serve as future public memorials, and was chosen by Louisiana state legislature to represent the service of the state’s World War II veterans. In 1982, she was permanently docked along the Mississippi River in downtown Baton Rouge and opened as a public museum vessel, and in 1986, she was listed as a National Historic Landmark.

Permanent Exhibits

Today, the USS Kidd (DD-661) stands as the only Fletcher-class destroyer to remain in its original World War II state, completely restored to her 1945 appearance and armament. She is owned and operated by the Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission. Because of the unique depth conditions of the Mississippi River, she spends half her year berthed on the river and the other half dry-docked on the shoreline of downtown Baton Rouge.

Visitors may board the Kidd as a living history museum and see the ship as she was configured during her service in World War II, touring all areas of the ship and climbing inside bunks within the ship’s sleeping quarters. Navy veterans on site serve as docents for ship tours, highlighting important ship information and sharing anecdotes about life on deck. Though the Kidd is only handicap-accessible on her main decks due to the nature of her historic restoration, a 30-minute film presentation touring the entirety of the ship’s interior is available upon request for visitors with accessibility needs.

In addition to the ship itself, admission to the Kidd also includes a tour of a two-story museum dedicated to Louisiana veterans. Permanent exhibits focus on aspects of naval history on the Mississippi River and beyond, featuring memorabilia from crewmen who served on the Kidd during her 20th-century engagements, including helmets showing the damage of their World War II battle service. A number of rotating temporary exhibits are also highlighted, focusing on historical and cultural topics related to World War II, such as the 2017 Captured in Canvas exhibit featuring works of amateur and professional art depicting the Kidd. A Louisiana Memorial Plaza outside the museum commemorates the names of fallen area soldiers.

Ongoing Programs and Education

Guided 1 ½-hour tours are offered for school groups and organizations, highlighting Louisiana history and social studies curriculum topics. An overnight camping experience is offered for students, allowing children to sleep inside the ship’s bunks and learn about naval history in a hands-on environment. The Kidd is also available for private rental for birthday parties, military ceremonies, and other special events.

Regular public lectures are held as part of the Kidd Keynotes lecture series, focusing on topics related to military and social issues and highlighting ways to get involved in community veterans activities. The museum also participates in Baton Rouge’s Free First Sundays program, which allows families to visit some of the city’s most prominent museums for free. Themed activities are offered during First Sundays, including pirate-themed activities honoring the ship’s nickname as the “Pirate of the Pacific.”

A number of fundraising events and programs throughout the year honor the service of Louisiana veterans and facilitate museum operations, including a Sponsor-a-Veteran donation program and an annual benefit concert.

305 South River Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, Phone: 225-342-1942

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Attraction Spotlight: Shaw Center for the Arts

Located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Shaw Center for the Arts is a performing and fine arts complex housing several museums and arts organizations, including the LSU Museum of Art, the Manship Theatre, and the LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery. Opened in 2005 through the contributions of public and private funders, including its namesake the Shaw Group, the Shaw Center for the Arts complex was designed as a multipurpose arts and education facility for the city of Baton Rouge.

History

It encompasses nearly an entire city block of downtown Baton Rouge, near the city’s Old State Capitol. Designed by Boston architectural firm Schwartz/Silver Architects, the Center is noted for its unique translucent channel glass skin, produced by Germany’s Glasfabrik Lamberts. The Center has received several awards for its design, including the American Institute of Architects’ 2005 Gulf States Honor Award and 2008 National Honor Award, which praised the building’s use of contrasting materials.

Permanent Attractions

Two Louisiana State University museums are housed within the complex, the LSU Museum of Art and the LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery. Founded in 1959, the LSU Museum of Art was originally located within the city’s Memorial Tower before its move to the Center in 2005. Today, it serves as the city’s only dedicated art museum, hosting more than 20,000 annual visitors. The University’s permanent collection is among the largest in the American South, holding over 6,500 regional and international pieces dating from the prehistoric through the present day, including a notable collection of Chinese jade works. A new exhibit, opened in 2016, presents one of the largest collections of Louisiana-produced art, exploring the state’s diverse cultural and social history. An extensive slate of art programming for the Baton Rouge community includes in-school art programs and collaborative presentations with local artists-in-residence.

The Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery serves as the official exhibition space for the University’s School of Art. Rotating exhibitions by School of Art students and faculty are presented at the gallery, along with exhibits by regional and national contemporary artists. Exhibits strive to present challenging works to visitors that inspire discussion and reflection and present a microcosm of the School of Art’s dialogue with the Baton Rouge community and beyond.

The Center’s flagship theater venue is the Manship Theatre, a theater complex anchored by the 325-seat Main Theatre, which hosts a variety of local theatrical and dance performances, concerts, and film showings. The Hartley/Vey Studio and Workshop Theatres serve as a “cultural laboratory” for the Baton Rouge arts scene, offering affordable performances by eclectic music artists and performing arts companies, as well as stand-up comedy shows, songwriter series, and other local arts events. In addition to its performance venues, the theater complex, which is named for local newspaper magnate Douglas L. Manship, Sr., also includes a gallery area. Also offering performing arts at the complex are the New Venture Theatre, which strives to present diverse works by new artists and provide educational outreach programming that emphasizes the empathy of the human experience, and Forward Arts, a literary arts nonprofit group presenting spoken-word performances, open mic nights, poetry slams, and in-school creative writing workshops.

In addition to its theaters and museums, the Center is also the home of several arts and cultural nonprofit organizations serving the Baton Rouge community. The Center for Planning Excellence is a community-planning organization that presents programming striving toward better quality of life for Louisianians, including economic stimulus programs, cultural identity preservation projects, and sustainability initiatives. New Schools for Baton Rouge, a community education partnership, seeks to employ resources to improve quality of education for all city students. Two organizations advocate for arts education in the Baton Rouge area, the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, which strives to re-implement local arts education programs in public schools, and its subsidiary, Louisiana A+ Schools, a fully integrated research-based school network that incorporates art activities into all educational subjects across the curriculum.

A variety of dining options are offered for before-and-after-theater service, including the rooftop Tsunami sushi bar, the Capital City Grill bar, Stroube’s Seafood and Steaks southern cuisine restaurant, and PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans.

In addition to performances by resident organizations and touring groups, many of the complex’s facilities may be rented for weddings, business events, and private special events, including the glass-enclosed River Terrace, which contains a balcony sculpture garden, and the Pennington Rooftop Terrace and Sculpture Garden at Tsunami. Event spaces at the Manship Theatre, the LSU Museum of Art, and the LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery are also available for public and private event rental.

100 Lafayette St, Baton Rouge, LA 70801, Phone: 225-389-7171

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Attraction Spotlight: Baton Rouge Gallery

The Baton Rouge Gallery provides contemporary art exhibits every month that feature professional local and sometimes national artists. Each exhibition begins with an opening reception on the first Wednesday of the month. In addition to exhibitions, the art gallery offers many cultural programs that bring its guests face-to-face with modern art from a variety of disciplines, such as music, dance, poetry, film, and more. Exhibits at the Baton Rouge Gallery usually showcase works by its artist members. The exception to this is when the gallery hosts special juried exhibits during January and April. In every exhibition, visitors may see works by painter, photographers, stained-glass artists, sculptors, installation and/or multi-media artists, ceramicists, and printmakers.

Among the things that make Baton Rouge Gallery different from other similar museums and galleries is that the gallery has retained some of its artist cooperative identity. This means that only the member artists possess the ability to welcome new artists to the gallery. These artists are also the only ones that have the authority to excuse artists from the gallery. Baton Rouge Gallery today is one of the nation's longest-standing artist cooperative organizations. The goal of the gallery has been to offer a different view of quality modern art in the area, rather than the viewpoint of a gallery owner of single curator.

Several different types of fun and educational programming are provided throughout the year at the Baton Rouge Gallery. One such program is ARTiculate, monthly artist talks during which audiences and artists come together to discuss the work of artists. The talks offer an opportunity for guests to hear about the inspirations, the processes, and the techniques behind works on display in the exhibits directly from the artists themselves. These informal talks are open to the public, always free, and offer a Q&A session as well as insight almost guaranteed to create a new perspective on contemporary art from the local area. With occasional exceptions, the ARTiculate Artists Talks occur on the Sunday following the Opening Reception of each exhibition at 4:00pm.

The Movies and Music on the Lawn series at Baton Rouge Gallery is a summer film series hosted by the gallery every year. This fun and interesting program pairs the best contemporary, local bands with iconic silent films for six entertaining and unique nights during the summer. While a film is projected on an outdoor gigantic inflatable screen on the gallery's lawn, a band performs live a score never heard before by visitors.

Possibly Baton Rouge Gallery's most diverse educational program is Sundays@4. This program averages over a dozen readings and performances every year from top-notch musicians, authors, poets, dance troupes, and more. Sundays@4 has features performances by popular local singer-songwriters, panel discussions about race in modern art, and Louisiana poet laureates among others over the past several years. The program, always beginning at 4:00pm, is open to the public and is free to attend. These performances give guests an up-close look at what local performers and non-visual artists are working on.

1515 Dalrymple Drive, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Phone: 225-383-1470

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