JAMNOLA — Attraction in New Orleans

Overpriced Selfie Factory With No Soul

If you're looking to experience New Orleans art and culture, don’t waste your time or money on JAMNOLA. Two of us paid $70 for what turned out to be a well-decorated selfie factory.

The whole place is designed for Instagram—not insight. They literally sell selfie sticks at the entrance(who does that?). That says it all. Every room is a curated backdrop, and you even have someone who works there telling you exactly where to stand and what angle to shoot from “to get the perfect selfie.” It's less a museum and more a selfie playground built to manufacture FOMO.

They market it as a celebration of New Orleans art, but it feels generic—like something you could build in any city with enough venture capital and recycled props. A guy even came to start the tour/visit bragging about the $2 million budget and name-dropping artists like it was a startup pitch. Meanwhile, the receptionist looked miserable and rushed us through like we were a burden.

There are artists' names next to some of the pieces, but no real context, no story, no reason to care. It’s all surface. No substance.

New Orleans is full of actual culture—the Jazz Museum, street musicians, real galleries, second lines, neighborhood traditions. JAMNOLA just mimics that spirit for profit.

If they were honest about what this is—a commercial selfie playground—they might deserve less criticism. But trying to pass it off as meaningful cultural engagement is insulting.

I should have read more reviews before going- I legit don't understand why so many people are raving about this place at this price. There are so many better, more meaningful places...

Thoroughly enjoyed myself! Great photo opportunity! The workers there was very nice especially, "Why" lol Just the crew up front did not know much about the game of how to Crack the code. One girl tried to explain it, but still did not have much info, so my group quickly lost interest and did not collect any clues since it really was not explained and not much time was given in the first room anyway. Also, after I had to ask questions about the 3d glasses, the lady told us how they could be used in the different rooms. Although, no one in our group ended up purchasing any we still had a good time without them, but I heard it will give you a better 3d experience. Other than that, we enjoyed the moment we were able to make a video as if we were celebrating at Mardi gras. The history of new orleans was a little different for me so I did not stay too long in that room, but my friend said it was nice and learned a bit. I would suggest adding master p in there if they can. Besides that, parking is difficult because it is limited street parking and near a popular restaurant which does not help, so definitely come early to give your time to park. Also, they give scheduled times, however, my group ran into a hiccup and after leaving a voicemail on their business number they almost instantly called me back and we were able to reschedule, so they were able to accommodate us for a later time. Pricing for the organization I believe is fair, but we bought through groupon, so I do not know if that makes a difference. Overall, it...

This is an amazing museum. I went with my family on a weekend. We preordered tickets but it seemed like some people were also buying tickets same day, so I don’t see why that would be an issue.

I think we were thinking it was a self guided tour. But, it was not. The museum is not large enough to be seeing a tour guide at every turn instructing you on how to interact with the museum. I wanted to interact on my own. I was disappointed because in the lobby, there is a QR code to solve a code using the other codes found inside of the museum, but I wasn’t able to because AT EVERY TURN THERE WAS A GUIDE IN MY FACE.

And I mean they were stopping to instruct you on how to take pictures, where to take the pictures, how to pose, and what buttons to press. Just too much, when I just wanted to document the memory with my family.

It was very overwhelming.

I do believe that overall the museum is a great idea as it does start off telling the importance of cleaning up behind yourself. You see how the trash impacts the city, mostly the wildlife, from tourist. It was amazing to see art from local NOLA artists, as well as listen to their music.

They do provide complimentary cups at the end of the tour, but you’re more than welcome to check out their gift shop, which had some great goodies!

I’ll maybe visit again. But I would probably request to have either the same guide through the tour, or either see if you can be self guided if you struggle with things...