Event to feature performances by Irma Thomas, Kermit Ruffins, River Eckert and more, plus Emcee Gralen Banks. Proceeds benefit the NOCCA Foundation’s Daniel Price Memorial Fund for
Aspiring Artists, honoring the memory of NOCCA alum Daniel Price.
NEW ORLEANS — The NOCCA Foundation and the family of Daniel Price are thrilled to announce this year’s “Home for the Holidays” fundraiser, taking place on Sunday, December 20. For the first time, the event will take place on campus at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts in the beautiful Lupin Hall (NOCCA, 2800 Chartres Street). This year’s star-studded music lineup features returning New Orleans legends — the “Soul Queen of New Orleans,” Irma Thomas and Jazz trumpeter, singer and composer Kermit Ruffins — plus 17-year-old pianist and vocalist River Eckert, along with Emcee Gralen Banks.
Sunday, December 20, 2026 at 6:00 pm
NOCCA’s Lupin Hall, 2800 Chartres Street
Tickets are now available to purchase at HomeForTheHolidaysNOLA.com. Proceeds from the event support the NOCCA Foundation’s Daniel Price Memorial Fund for Aspiring Artists, which honors the memory of NOCCA alum Daniel Price (Visual Arts, 1993) with scholarships for NOCCA students.
Home for the Holiday’s new location brings an updated format to the annual fundraiser. Gold, Silver and Bronze patrons will enjoy a patron cocktail hour from 6-7 pm featuring an open bar, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and access to the silent auction, followed by a seated show in Lupin Hall beginning at 7 pm.
Home for the Holidays
Date: Sunday, December 20, 2026, 6 pm – 9:30 pm
Location: Lupin Hall at NOCCA, 2800 Chartres St. New Orleans, LA 70117 (complimentary parking is available)
Ticket Info:
GA Tickets ($50): General admission tickets include access to the Home for the Holidays Concert starting at 7pm, with performances by Irma Thomas, Kermit Ruffins and River Eckert plus access to the silent auction.
Silver Tickets ($125): Silver patrons enjoy a patron cocktail hour from 6-7 pm with heavy hors d’oeuvres, open bar, and early access to the silent auction featuring artwork, experiences and additional items great for holiday gifting. Silver patrons also receive seats closer to the stage to watch performances by Irma Thomas, Kermit Ruffins, River Eckert, and more.
Bronze Tickets ($50): *For NOCCA Alumni!* Get all the benefits of the Silver ticket for less. Only available to NOCCA alumni, limit two tickets per purchase.
Gold Tickets $250: Gold patrons will enjoy a patron cocktail party from 6-7pm with heavy hors d’oeuvres, open bar, plus early access to the silent auction featuring artwork, experiences and additional items great for holiday gifting. Gold patrons receive premier seating in the front rows of Lupin Hall, where they’ll watch performances by Irma Thomas, Kermit Ruffins, River Eckert, and more.
The Daniel Price Memorial Fund for Aspiring Artists — honoring the memory of Daniel Price, a talented artist and NOCCA alumnus who was tragically killed in 2003 — was established to give exceptional NOCCA graduates an opportunity to pursue higher educational studies in a fine arts discipline. The Fund provides scholarships to outstanding NOCCA graduates so they can follow their artistic passion while obtaining a college degree. The Fund also supports tuition at summer programs across the country, providing NOCCA’s young artists with year-round continued education. To date, Home for the Holidays and the Daniel Price Fund have raised over $700,000 for NOCCA and its amazing students.
DANIEL’S STORY
A native of New Orleans, Daniel Buckner Price attended Benjamin Franklin High School and NOCCA from 1989 to 1993. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1998 from Southern Methodist University, where he won national awards as editorial cartoonist for the school’s newspaper, The Daily Campus. During the next five-and-a-half years, Daniel established himself as a first-class professional artist in both New Orleans and San Francisco. In addition to his regularly commissioned portraits of people and dogs, Daniel’s murals and paintings grace the walls of multiple restaurants in the two cities, as well as historic homes and the grand ballroom of Harrah’s Casino.
Tragically, Daniel was shot and killed while protecting his wife, Sarah, a fellow Ben Franklin graduate, from an assailant in San Francisco on December 19, 2003. He was 28-years old. A memorial service was held in his honor at NOCCA, with several of Daniel’s paintings and drawings on display.
Throughout his career, Daniel often credited NOCCA with providing a strong foundation for his artistic skills and love of fine art. And it was at NOCCA that he first began expressing his deep appreciation for the city of New Orleans. Daniel possessed an unending passion for life, art, music, sport, beauty, fun, and for his hometown. The spirit of New Orleans was ever-present in his artwork, and he continually sought to capture the magic he saw in the city and its people. Having come of age in a place where life is seen as one big celebration, Daniel celebrated everyday moments in his paintings, drawings, murals and sculptures, and he made each of those images burst with the same radiant energy he exuded in his own life. Though his career took him to places around the world, such as San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the Loire Valley of France, Daniel’s fascination with New Orleans themes and traditions continued to dominate his art. His last series of paintings, shown in his first solo exhibition at the Canvas Gallery in San Francisco, depicted Mardi Gras Indians and musical images of New Orleans.
For more information on Home for the Holidays, visit HomeForTheHolidaysNOLA.com. To learn more about the Daniel Price Memorial Fund for Aspiring Artists, visit https://danielpricememorial.org/. Follow us on social media for more updates at @noccafoundation (Instagram and Facebook).
Home for the Holidays is made possible in part by the NOCCA Foundation’s longtime media sponsor, NOLA.com and The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate.
ABOUT NOCCA AND THE NOCCA FOUNDATION
The New Orleans Center for Creative Arts NOCCA) was founded in 1973 and opened its doors to students in 1974. Today, NOCCA is Louisiana’s arts conservatory for high school students, offering intensive instruction in Classical Music, Creative Writing, Culinary Arts, Dance, Drama, Entertainment Production Design, Jazz, Media Arts, Musical Theatre, Vocal Music, Visual Arts, and academics. Students come from across Louisiana, attending via full-day, afternoon, and after-school sessions. Admission to NOCCA is by audition, and there is no tuition.
The NOCCA Foundation is NOCCA’s nonprofit partner, providing supplemental funding for NOCCA and advocacy for its world-class program. Some of the Foundation’s more notable endeavors include: a Financial Aid Program that pays for students’ classroom supplies as well as fees associated with important summer training programs across the country; an Artists-in-Residence Program that brings more than 100 professional visiting artists into NOCCA’s classrooms each year; the capital campaign for NOCCA’s current home and expansion projects like Press Street Gardens; a wide array of arts classes for adults; and concert, gallery, and literary events for the community. The Foundation also oversees rentals of the NOCCA campus, making it available to arts organizations, individuals, corporations, and other groups.