Recipient of the Danny Barker Keeping the History Alive Award (2003), the Contemporary Art Center’s SweetART Award (2005), the James Michalopoulos Pirouette Award (2012), Offbeat Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Heartbeat Award (2014) and the Cutting Edge Music Conference’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), Pat Jolly is tireless supporter of, and prolific participant in, the cultural life of New Orleans. She has made her mark as a photographer, arts educator, video producer and promoter of creative talent. A summary of her efforts on behalf of artists, culture bearers and nonprofit organizations would literally fill pages. She’s hooked up hundreds of New Orleans musicians with festival gigs in Europe; earned production credits on foreign and domestic video programs featuring New Orleans music; and organized and curated, on a volunteer basis, numerous photography and art exhibitions including, in 2004, Improvisation: Musicians as Artists (which featured contributions from over 100 musicians). Her own photos have been featured in more than 75 art exhibitions. In the 1980s, her passion for promoting New Orleans music found an outlet in a self-published weekly music calendar, popularly known as the Jolly Jazz calendar and underwritten by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. In the 1990s, the calendar evolved into a free community email service still cherished by many. For years, through Young Audiences and the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD), Pat ran an innovative summer arts-education program for underprivileged youths. She has applied her love for grassroots community outreach, fundraising and organizing on behalf of the Musicians Clinic, New Orleans Women in Music and Ladyfest, among others. Volunteering for the Musicians Clinic led to a job there after Hurricane Katrina setting up weekly gigs and finding housing for musicians. For six months beginning in December 2012, and reprised in summer 2016, she produced a weekly free-admission film series, NOLAsynchroniCITY, featuring documentaries about New Orleans. Pat was the music captain for Krewe du Vieux for nine years and Jazz Fest's sole staff photographer for nine years. She’s passionate about documenting local culture, the art of the community and those who create it. Work to properly organize, digitize and add identification information to the images in her massive photo collection is ongoing, made possible by having received four grants from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation and the Arts Council of New Orleans. She’s seeking additional funding for the Pat Jolly Photo Archive Project and assistance from people with an affinity for cultural documentation and preservation. Her mission is to create a free, easily accessible resource for future generations, researchers, organizations, educators, programs for children, culture makers and anyone interested in the people, traditions and homegrown artistry that have long been her guiding light. — Graham Button (grant writer, Pat Jolly Photo Archive Project)
A Very Jolly Celebrartion
Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide (2022)
Article by Dean M. Shapiro
https://www.dropbox.com/s/swq3uoo8qmuygtf/PJ_MG_Guide2022.pdf?dl=0
Pat Jolly – New Orleans’ “Funtrepreneur” & Cultural Ambassador
BreakThru Media Magazine March/April 2018 Issue
Article by Meaghan Clark
http://www.nolasynchronicity.com/files/File/PROOF3-PatJolly-BTMMarApr18.pdf
The advocate as “fun-trepreneur”
(the most extensive article about me including my photos - written 20+ years ago and partially updated)
Arrticle by Graham Button
https://mardigrastraditions.com/pat-jolly/
Cutting Edge Music Conference's Lifetime Achievement Award 2016
Article by Eric Cager
https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Jazz-lover-Pat-Jolly-to-receive-Cutting-Edge-CE-Lifetime-Achievement-Award-.html?soid=1011087220895&aid=R2TEcwrJcBw
Offbeat Magazine's Lifetime Achievement "Heartbeat Award" 2014
Article by Geraldine Wyckoff
https://www.offbeat.com/articles/heartbeat-award-pat-jolly/
Pat Jolly Photography
O Muse! Digital Magazine
Article by Diana Thornton
https://www.omusemag.org/pat-jolly-photography/
James Michalopoulos Pirouette Awards 2012
CONGRATULATIONS TO HONOREES: Camile Baldassar, Pat Jolly Don Marshall, Cree McCree, Jason Patterson and Quintron... Pat Jolly is an amazingly tireless supporter of New Orleans music, arts and underground social scenes. She is an unstoppable documentarian, chronicling the fast paced and lively happenings everywhere. She is a warm and loving, upbeat sparkling fairy behind the camera, flitting about at every not to miss scene in town.
Contemporary Arts Center SweetART Award 2005
The CAC will honor prominent members of the New Orleans arts community with an awards ceremony and ball set amidst illuminated art installations with musical performances and featuring dishes by local chefs from Atchafalaya, Commander's Palace, Emeril's and more.
Danny Barker Keeping the History Alive Award 2003