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FOCUS ON PHILANTHROPY
Eugenia Uhl and David Rebeck
Eugenia Uhl and David Rebeck recently traveled together to Spain with The Collection’s annual staff-led tour group, taking in the romantic sights of Seville, Malaga, Granada, and more. Long before they traveled as a pair, though, Uhl and Rebeck made a connection during their own journeys: passing each other in an airport—Atlanta? Charlotte? They can’t quite remember which one—they locked eyes. “I told the guys 1 was with, ‘Wow, I just passed this woman and she had this look,’” Rebeck recalls.
“1 thought, ‘There’s the guy I’m going to end up with,”’ Uhl says.
The moment came and went, and it seemed nothing more would come of it. Several years after that chance encounter, though, the two strangers met properly—or as properly as people can meet on Mardi Gras Day, in costume, at a wedding for mutual friends held on Frenchmen Street and officiated by musician Coco Robicheaux. Again, they were drawn to each other.
“It was a familiar feeling,” Rebeck says. “Some women, when you first meet, there’s a barrier up. Not with her.” Today, Rebeck and Uhl live together in a beautiful double shotgun attached to a former pharmacy in the Bywater neighborhood. They are both passionate about the arts: Rebeck, a native of Michigan and graduate of the University of Minnesota, is a violist and violinist who has played with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars, the Rites of Swing, and other local ensembles. He also runs the popular Piety Street Sno-balls, which offers
unique flavors such as Vietnamese coffee and lemon-basil.
Uhl, who grew up in Gretna and attended Louisiana State University and the Portfolio Center in Atlanta, is a photographer specializing in food, interiors, and food styling. She has shot images for Galatoire’s, Commander’s Palace, the Palace Cafe, Tulane University, and magazines such as GQ, Essence, and Travel and Leisure. She is also a calligrapher and bookbinder.
“I like taking apart old books and making new ones,” Uhl says of her creations, which can be seen at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.
Their home is inviting, interesting, and full of eclectic pieces. The old pharmacy space still has its original patterned tile floor and built-in shelves and display cases, which now house books, stemware, sheet music, knick-knacks, and Uhl’s impressive collection of vintage and antique cameras. In the opposite corner stands Rebeck’s music stand, which bears an open copy of Bach’s violin partitas.
Inside the main house, original plaster walls with beautiful patina form the backdrop for a bevy of different styles: a Danish modern chair cozies up to a semicircular sectional sofa, while an art deco lighting fixture hangs above a midcentury mint and burgundy-red bar with padded leather accents. Artworks, many of them made by friends, line the walls.
Rebeck, who would like to curate musical programs around different themes of historical importance, says he appreciates The Collection’s wealth of research information. “Its very existence
is great,” he says. “It’s wonderful that these resources are available.”
The couple loved going to Spain with The Collection’s tour group—Madrid’s naval museum and the Alhambra, a Moorish castle in Granada, were favorite stops on the itinerary—and hopes to “continue to support The Collection and the things that they do,” Uhl says.
“It offers exhibits and experiences that no other organization has,” Rebeck says. “New Orleans is that rich of a place; it needs something like [The Collection].”
—Molly Reid
The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly 13