Arts New Orleans administered 19 outdoor exhibits in "Art in Public Places," a project paid for by a $750,000 post-Katrina grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation.

The installations were on view from 2009 - 2011. A map of the installations and their placement can be viewed here.

“Art of the Black Experience” seeks to recognize Black people's contributions and experiences, ranging from cultural practices to heroism. The artwork speaks to the rich history, cultural practices, and spirituality of Black New Orleans; civil rights history and contemporary struggles for racial justice; under-told stories of Black heroes and activism; and Black joy, healing, strength, and wellbeing.

In 2018, Arts New Orleans in partnership with the Downtown Development District (DDD) secured a Project for Public Spaces (PPS) Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community grant to reinvigorate Duncan Plaza. Long known as a site where civic activity and social issues play out in New Orleans, Duncan Plaza was the site of Occupy demonstrations as well as temporary housing after Hurricane Katrina. But despite being nestled between the New Orleans City Hall and a public library, Duncan Plaza has been habitually under-used, and its neighbors and users are ready to bring new activity to the space.

The Southwest Airlines Heart of the Community grant program was developed to support and activate public spaces in the heart of cities served by Southwest Airlines. The program leveraged the power of placemaking to spark social, economic, and environmental benefits in communities across the United States and abroad.

Arts New Orleans and the DDD started with short-term experiments that could pave the way for future longer-term transformations to the park. After a comprehensive community outreach process, it was clear that users of the space wanted wellness programming, green space for recreation, and food trucks to become a part of the plaza. With this in mind, the updates began to set the stage for an entirely new Duncan Plaza.

Among the first changes to the space was a wider array of seating options, the most distinctive of which were designed and painted bright purple by local artist Danielle Hein with One to One Architects. Additional moveable seating and tables were added as park amenities. A temporary dog park also took over a small corner of the plaza, and since opening its gates, has demonstrated just how much local pet owners could benefit from more open space in the area. Arts New Orleans also implemented Marketplace, a pop-up arts market through the term of grant support.

A permanent light installation by Cordula Roser Gray and Marcela del Signore also remains in the park. Vectorflow consists of five canopies which revive the value of the park as a public amenity, addressing lack of visibility and public safety. The red canopies—which on their own attract visitors with their bright colors and unique design—provide motion-sensor lighting at night and shade during the day.

Duncan Plaza continues to be revitalized and renewed with various civic services and uses which benefit from the investment and infrastructure provided by the Southwest Heart of the Community grant.

The purpose of the Gentilly Resilience District public art project is to build awareness about the city’s water infrastructure and to catalyze action surrounding environmental challenges. The project brings together visual artists working in a variety of mediums— including painting, sculpture, glass, mosaic, and digital arts—to explore urban water challenges and co-create public art projects with Gentilly neighborhood residents.

Water Leaders Institute organized in-person and virtual tours of green infrastructure in parks, the drainage pump station and canal systems, regional flood control structures, and more. Artists also learned from urban designers, landscape architects, and engineers about the best practices of integrating public art into parks, rain gardens, and bioswales. Residents were engaged in the design process through extensive community engagement and participation in the selection committee. The COVID-19 pandemic required artists and residents to engage in novel ways, including through an online Meet the Artists series, an interactive packet of arts activities that went to every resident, and a temporary outdoor exhibition.

The result will be seven public art projects situated in parks, rain gardens, and at the London Avenue Canal levee breach. Each artwork approaches the topic of “living with water” from a unique and thoughtful perspective, including exploring the city’s historic relationship with water, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the importance of native plants, the negative impact of plastic waste, and the need for intergenerational stewardship of our environment. Collectively, the artwork will demonstrate the power of art to spark imagination and dialogue about the existential question of how New Orleans will address the environmental challenges it faces.

The $141 million HUD-funded Gentilly Resilience District is a combination of efforts across the Gentilly neighborhood that are designed to reduce flood risk, slow land subsidence, improve energy reliability, and encourage neighborhood revitalization. This project will be a model for how other neighborhoods in New Orleans and across the region and country can adapt to thrive in a changing environment—and how artists can play a central role in that change.

LUNA Fête is a visionary initiative created by Arts New Orleans to demonstrate the power of art to transform communities.

This free and open to the public festival of light, art, and technology celebrates New Orleans creative industries and provides a memorable experience for diverse event attendees.

Since its 2014 inception, LUNA Fête has presented some of the top light and projection-based artists in the world, while simultaneously providing training to local artists to advance their capabilities to create large-scale and interactive art animated with light. More than 200 New Orleans artists and 60 youth have advanced their technical and artistic skills through this unique educational opportunity.

Begun in 1986, the NOLA Percent for Art (PfA) program is the City of New Orleans’ public art collection. NOLA PfA places original works by local artists throughout city-operated public spaces, everywhere from branch libraries to City Hall to recreational centers to neutral grounds. There are currently more than 400 NOLA PfA artworks enlivening our city’s landscape, representing the creativity and strength of the artists who make New Orleans unlike any other city in the world.

Funded by 1.5% of eligible capital projects, NOLA PfA supports local artists through commissions, exhibitions, direct purchases, community outreach, and education. Through commissions, NOLA PfA facilitates the production of public artworks, collaborating closely with community partners to imagine, design, and implement creative projects that build community pride and increase social, economic, and civic wellbeing. Whether the work takes the form of a sculpture, creative design solution, or community engagement initiative, NOLA PfA seeks work that is thoughtful and responsive to its context and which illuminates our treasured community traditions.

The Carrollton Courthouse building is an architectural gem of New Orleans. Closed since 2013, it was designed by acclaimed architect Henry Howard and originally constructed in 1855. It has a storied history as a former courthouse and, for more than a century, a school. Felicity Property Co and Liberty Senior Living have partnered together to revitalize the building as a senior living community.

37 pieces were selected from approximately 1,125 submissions from 375 artists. Selections were made by a committee organized by the project client, which included representatives from Felicity Property Co., the architecture firm, and interior design team. The initial budget for artwork was $60,000 but the selection committee was so impressed by the quality of the work that they increased the budget to $80,000.

Arts New Orleans provided expert curatorial guidance to our clients in assembling an art collection featuring the works of local and regional artists. We worked with them to create a sense of place within the historic building, to use artwork to tell the stories of the historic building and neighborhood, and to create a peaceful yet vibrant environment for the future residents.

The Joe W. Brown Park youth mural series is part of a multi-year creative placemaking project spearheaded by NOLABA and Arts New Orleans called “Public Art in New Orleans East: Altering the Perception of a Vital Corridor through Art and Engagement.” The project coincides with broader revitalization efforts in the East. Our goal is to celebrate the diverse cultures of the East, shift its perception by beautifying community assets, and create a sense of place along once-thriving commercial corridors. The youth mural series was phase one of an initiative that will include large-scale sculptures along Lake Forest Blvd and at I-10 exits. Arts New Orleans secured a $75,000 National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy and NOLABA to support the project.

Youth artists met with several stakeholders and researched New Orleans East history and heritage to create murals that speak to the identities and aspirations of the community. The youth artists solicited input through a community design workshop and online surveys. Through a partnership with NOVAC, youth participants documented the process of making each of the four murals. The murals were unveiled at a community celebration that featured a second line parade through Joe W. Brown Park.

The project resulted in four gorgeous murals in New Orleans East.

Artists: Journey Allen (Lead Artist Mentor), Wendo Brunoir (Lead Artist Mentor), Ceci Givens (Lead Artist Mentor), Jamar Pierre (Lead Artist Mentor), Ceaux (Mentor), Gabrielle Garcia Steib (Video Artist Mentor), Gabrielle Tolliver, Victoria Phan, Elijah Turk, Elmore Antone, J'Mya Antone, Allie Bell, Tyrenn Bijou, Derek Boykins, Leah Butler, Greyson Cupit, Angel Dounseroux, Nia Gates, Gabriella Gilchriese, Jovan Green, Aaran Hogan, Nia Jackson, Lamaj Mathis, Miya McGill, Oliver Mickens, Erin Miller, Andria Montgomery, Aliyah Pflueger, Melaya Rayford, Cierra Sutton, Delise Hampton, Asia-Vinae "Preach" Palmer, Cory Poree, Kristian Williams

Partners: New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA), the Jones Family, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy, City Council District E, Eastern New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Council, New Orleans East Matters Coalition, Friends of Joe Brown Park, NORDC, Algiers Economic Development Foundation, New Orleans East Hospital, Audubon Nature Institute, East New Orleans Business Development District, New Orleans Public Library, NOVAC

NOVAC Artist Mentor: Gabrielle Garcia Steib
Youth Artists: Jovan Green, Greyson Cupit, Nia Gates, Elmore Antone, and Erin Miller

Arts New Orleans has partnered with Canal Place Shopping Center to offer free studio and exhibition space in a retail storefront within the center. Over the course of six-month residencies, SALON artists will use their creative practices to activate the studio space, as well as other areas throughout the Center, through open studio tours, exhibitions, performances, workshops, and more. SALON promises exciting programming, exhibitions, and performances.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

In 17th-century France, the salon was conceived for elite society as a site for royally sanctioned painting and sculpture exhibitions. By the 19th century, radical and censored artists challenged these established spaces with their own counter-salons, favoring rebellion, experimentation, and modernity. As a nod to the past positioned in the future, SALON is a space for ideas and instincts to run wild, for relinquishing our minds to creative visitation and possibility, and for the curious and the questioning to gather earnestly in common intrigue.

SALON features six clean, white-walled studios of varied sizes, a communal workshop space, and a gallery for exhibitions, all free of charge to artists. This unusual collaboration comes at a time when affordable studio space is becoming harder and harder to find in New Orleans. Through dedicated, comfortable work space, SALON seeks to provide a sanctuary for resident artists to create and grow. As a new and unconventional residency model, SALON hopes to promote collaborative practice through multidisciplinary artist practices and by offering programmatic opportunities in a space that by its nature is experimental.

View current and previous SALON gallery + artist studios participants below.

Fat City is the 100-acre area adjacent to Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. With numerous music clubs and restaurants, Fat City was once considered the French Quarter of Jefferson Parish. The Fat City Mural Project creates a new visual identity for Fat City with ten distinctive artworks by local and nationally-recognized artists.

Arts New Orleans and Fat City Friends Inc., with the support of the Metairie Business Development District and the Jefferson Parish Government completed the area’s largest mural project. Spanning two years, the Fat City Mural Project creates a new visual identity for Fat City by adding ten distinctive artworks by local and nationally-recognized artists to highly visible walls of the business community in the Fat City area.

The murals enliven previously blank walls in the Fat City business area and unify the neighborhood by inspiring creative thought and conversation among residents and visitors. Imaginative visions from a school of fish circling through a shark, colorful abstract bead dogs, to giant legs kicking high into the air are among the new works decorating Fat City facades. The Fat City Mural Project exemplifies the transformative power of public art in communities.

Small business owners along New Orleans' Broad Street "Main Street" (U.S. Hwy. 90) were invited to partner with local artists and designers to create iconic signage for their store façades. An Iconic Sign visually depicts the nature of goods or services a business provides. One of Broad Street's defining features is the eclectic nature of its architecture; a goal of the project is to create a glowing cohesive visual identity for Broad Street, which is a vital east-west route through the center of the city. Using neon lighting, the signs also evoke some of the jazz-age and automobile-era heyday Broad Street enjoyed in the first half of the 20th century.

The Iconic Signage Project, a collaboration between Arts New Orleans and Broad Community Connections (BCC), created four new neon signs for businesses on Broad Street. Supported by a $25,000 grant from the NEA, the Iconic Signage Project is an arts-based economic development initiative that employed local artists to promote small businesses, tell their story, and create a glowing visual identity for Broad Street.

Businesses that participated in the project include: The GodBarber, a barber shop at 219 South Broad Street; F&F Botanica, a candle, incense, and spiritual supply shop at 801 North Broad Street; Calamari Trim Shop, an automobile, boat, and vehicle upholstery shop at 339 North Broad; and the Crescent School of Gaming and Bartending, located at 209 North Broad. The businesses were paired with artists —respectively—Jerry Therio, Candy Chang, Christian Stock, and Michael Cain, who met with the business owners to ensure that the signs were both creative as well as functional.

We learned a lot about what it takes to make a great sign. To share that information and make it easier to produce unique signage throughout New Orleans, we created the DIY Guide to Iconic Signs, a resource for other neighborhood groups and businesses interested in creating their own iconic signs.

UNFRAMED presented by The Helis Foundation, a project of Arts New Orleans, brings the vibrancy of the New Orleans Arts District from the gallery walls into the streets. A selection committee reviewed hundreds of submissions during two open calls for artists, selecting a diverse slate of artworks to add to the exhibit. The program launched in summer 2019 with the unveiling of five murals throughout the Arts District.

UNFRAMED is the first multi-mural exhibition of large scale artwork in Downtown New Orleans. As New Orleans’ largest signature mural collection, UNFRAMED generates economic benefit for artists, stimulates pedestrian traffic in the area, and reinforces New Orleans’ position as a national and international destination for contemporary art.

Muralist selections were made by the UNFRAMED presented by The Helis Foundation, a project of Arts New Orleans selection committee comprised of:

- Andrea Andersson, Founding Director and Chief Curator of Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought
- Brandan B-Mike Odums, Artist and Curator of Studio BE
- Chris Alfieri, Esq., Arts District New Orleans Resident and President & Board Chair, Prospect New Orleans
- Danielle Del Sol, Executive Director, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans
- Leslie-Claire Spillman, Director and Curator at Soren Christensen Gallery and Board Member of Arts District New Orleans
- William Andrews, Director of The Ogden Museum of Southern Art

Young Artist Movement (YAM) is an arts education and workforce development program that beautifies neighborhoods and connects youth to their communities through public art and placemaking. YAM was founded in 2016 by a collective of youth advocates, artists, and educators to provide transformative job and educational opportunities for local creative youth. At the heart of our work is the power of community, collaboration, and the capacity for young people to imagine and inspire positive change.

YAM works with community organizations and clients to research, design, and install high-quality artwork that is rooted in the spirit and culture of New Orleans. In all of our projects, talented youth learn transferable art and design, entrepreneurial, digital literacy, and leadership skills through a paid job. Our process for creating public art often includes historical research into under-told stories and themes, community design charettes to inform the design, and paint days and celebrations that bring together intergenerational community members.