New Orleans contemporary art collector and gallerist Arthur Roger

With his influential art gallery on Julia Street, Arthur Roger has established himself as New Orleans’ foremost contemporary art dealer. Roger has been promoting local artists in his native city since 1978, when he opened his first showroom on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District.

Roger is the subject of the latest NOLA Life Stories, the Historic New Orleans Collection’s oral history series. Here, Roger describes how he went from being a directionless kid growing up in the Ninth Ward to owner of the prestigious Arthur Roger Gallery.

This feature was part of the NOLA Life Stories Created by The Historic New Orleans Collection with the collaboration of WWNO.