Visitors attending the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival enjoy a varied mix of local and regional as well as national performers. Throw in the kind of cuisine that abounds in the city and at the fair, and one finds evidence that regional cultures can, in certain ways, outperform their national counterparts. Fortunately, it is not an either/or scenario.

Art lovers visiting the local galleries often wonder whether the Louisiana accent can be found in the visual arts as well. The answe...