An variety of 2010's art on the way in. Because objects are either reused, repurposed, or dismantled every year, you could visit every year and see vastly different exhibits in the warehouse. Inside the museum, of course, is fairly constant. Each item fit with a particular theme for a particular Krewe's parade.


For example, you see camel heads in back that go with the dog-Sphinx above. In front is the corporeal Centaurus constellation, who goes with another model seen below - I'm sure you can pick it out. It's clear which items were on the same float, but not always clear which items were on different floats in the same parade. For example, there was an Africa parade in 2010, and the Egyptian theme could have been a part of that (but not definitely). See if you can pick out other items that may be in the African domain.


Some floats end up being so huge they enshroud multiple vehicles. The gator, which may not have had quite so many beads pre-festival, is sectioned so that it can wiggle down the street. The entire train is just one float but has several cars to really drive home the train theme.


Some of the exhibits in the museum, which gives me the impression they're less likely to disappear for making next year's parade. On the other hand, anything's possible in an attempt to save money and time, because it's obvious each decoration involves significant manpower input. Could that monkey be in the Africa parade? How about the parrot? Or the camel? Or were they all leftovers from prior years' themes?


From animals to people. Heads are difficult to reuse because each resembles a person - unless it's a generic person - but the bodies get passed around for years until they're totally shot. If anyone wanted to do another Three Stooges float, you may see those two heads get reused, but that's about it. The jester, queen, and king pair nicely with the woman's head I showed you above that is smack in front of the museum entrance. How about the last photo - Aquarius? Remember with whom he matches?


Some of the figures aren't live at all. I'm sure these pair with the Mardi Gras royalty elsewhere on this page.


First stop out of the museum and before really getting into the warehouse displays is the artists' studios. Here's where they strip down past years' models, sculpt all the necessary new bits to fantastic detail out of the light but strong foam, and add the layers of paint. Drawings on the wall hint at concepts to be or that have been emulated. The smokestack-esque objects, large enough to have to be structural in the face of wind and dynamic loading through turns, are built of foam layers on a wooden core and smoothed to be every bit as precise as the smaller one-piece figures.

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