THE URBAN LANDSCAPE: A SENSE OF PLACE BOTH HERE AND THERE
March 28, 2019
I’m delighted to announce The Historic New Orleans Collection’s (THNOC) ART OF THE CITY: Postmodern to Post-Katrina, presented by The Helis Foundation, premieres on April 6 and runs through October 6th, 2019 christening the exciting redo of the Seignoret-Brulatour Building, 520 Royal Street. Invited as guest curator and working with the assistance of its Executive Director Priscilla Lawrence and in collaboration with her superb staff, it is my pleasure to invite you to visit the show and to participate in its multidisciplinary programs. Check hnoc.org for details that will be updated regularly. This exhibition is opening on the heels of the tricentennial of New Orleans after a year of ART OF THE CITY programs and a preview exhibition. Address: 520 Royal Street. Admission is free.
Coincidental to the New Orleans Tricentennial, was a quite differently-themed tricentennial public art project in the Netherlands, the northern Holland Groningen Province. This art route titled Kerstvloed (Christmas Flood) 1717-2017 was curated by Merijn Vrij and featured Biography of a House and Vestiges/Trinitas, as well works by fellow Orleanians Jana Napoli and Rontherin Ratliff, among public artworks by 16 artists representing other flood plains around the world as Japan, Indonesia, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. View a video of the project here.
Christmas Flood 1717-2017 Art Route Video
most of the installations
Babette Beaullieu and I have further developed Cajun Prayer Flags, also known as the Louisiana Prayer Flag Project, which has traveled to several locations across Louisiana and extended beyond the State to communities via New York State schools and Maison Gai Saber artist residency in the Poitiers Region of France.
Since Spring 2012 we have collaborated working with communities conducting workshops with all ages gathering stories and valuing heritage and the resilience which arises therefrom. We aim to foster awareness and appreciation for these cultural assets/qualities/tools the culture of Louisiana has to give to the world.
Through workshops and installations in elementary schools, high schools, universities and at festivals, we guide participants in creating original prayer flag designs representing their own personal culture: what they are truly embracing in their religion, food, music, family traditions. Each person produces a flag design from photography/written stories /small objects/fabric /paper.
LOUISIANA PRAYER FLAGS – PORCH STORIES is an installation which was on view at Urban Sidewalk/Installation Space for the whole of 2017 including as a Prospect New Orleans, P.S. satellite program venue also appearing as part of an interactive installation at Goat in the Road’s Get Your Art On (2017) at the Contemporary Arts Center and the Music Box Village (2018). It is an invitation to celebrate, look with deeper appreciation, and reflect on who we are today in Louisiana –this lively layering of many racial/cultural backgrounds – and to share this reflection in dialogue with a wider audience.
