What is the Prospect of Prospect 1?

New Orleans is a city that throughout its history has been known for its rich history of culture, music and art. While folk art is definitely the trend, and many contemporary artists working down there scoff a bit at the redundant scenes of street lamps and rod iron facades that consume the galleries on Royal Street in the French Quarter, many of the contemporary artists springing up in the bohemian Marigny, Bywater, St.Claude’s Art District neighborhoods make art that is influenced by the long history of folk art in the Southern United States. With the recent insurgence of trendy international contemporary artists exhibiting in the city for Prospect 1 there has been much controversial talk about the true prospects this biennial will have for artists living in New Orleans.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed speaking to many people on this subject. One young artists who moved to the city after Katrina from New York was excited by the exhibits and felt they would help artists and the community see their city anew. She felt the folk art was old, outdated and people needed some new inspiration. The need for exposure to other, newer, forms of expression, art trends, and ways of seeing I heard reflected from many young artists, particularly those who had moved down to New Orleans in recent years from places like NY or California.

On the flip side, artists – particularly ones born and raised in Southern Louisiana, are a bit skeptical. Their art reflects their culture, and their culture is extremely important in a land where most everything can be wiped out and taken away in the matter of minutes. The lack of many New Orleans artists featured in the biennial, the condescending sentences by contemporary art critics, writers, and artists in articles surrounding the festival about folk art being outdated and long since past, and it being time to put New Orleans on the map of art and culture by bringing in a number of artists who feel they progressed art forward and beyond the techniques and styles used by many local popular artist, are not taken lightly by some.

Many have pointed out though, that similar to the insurgence of football fans that flood the city during Saints games helps local entertainment businesses; the flood of art geeks coming to the city for the big name artists featured in Prospect 1 should help local galleries that feature local work do business. New Orleans is not a wealthy city with a big pocket to be spending on art, many feel its great that artists are getting exposure to the outside art buying world. Others question with a packed schedule of exhibits by 81 international artists, how much time people on a weekend trip who also want to have a few drinks on Bourbon Street and visit Preservation Hall will actually have to wander out to St. Claude’s for a tour of the local bohemian joints.

Something I personally find fascinating, is the huge buzz the biennial is creating in NYC, and how little its being talked about or effecting the day to day life of most New Orleanians. Its strangely quiet, which reveals to me how disconnected the locals of New Orleans truly are from the biennial. It truly feels like more of an international thing, than a “New Orleans” thing.