A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana - (Page 204)

These developments offered new implications and possibilities for Louisiana arts and cultural communities. During this same decade, across much of the state, a new wave of museum and arts center renovation and construction projects brought enhancements to diverse parts of the state and the larger world of the arts in Louisiana. While new media and new technologies became a growing influence on Louisiana’s art and culture of the first decade of the twenty-first century, two art projects in 2002 focused on the roots and traditions of Louisiana’s diverse people and cultural foundations, yet did so in a manner that reflected contemporary sensibilities and realities. The first was the completion and unveiling of Spirit House, by John Scott and Martin Payton, on DeSaix Circle in New Orleans, a public sculpture built in the manner of a raised shotgun house that reflected, according to Scott, the story of the “unnamed, unknown, African-American bricklayers, iron workers, fruit vendors, domestics and teachers who built the city.”34 The second was an exhibition and educational project, organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art, titled Raised to the Trade: Creole Building Arts of New Orleans, that focused on the traditional and often unsung craftsmen of Louisiana, including ironworkers, plasterers, masons, and carpenters, whose work built and maintained the architectural environment of New Orleans and the state. This exhibition, accompanied by a scholarly catalogue and diverse educational and demonstration programs, featured the work of individuals including Earl Barthé, Theodore “Teddy” Pierre, Donald Turdry, Desoto Jackson, Allison “Tootie” Montana, Allen Sumas, Lionel Ferbos, Johnny St. Cyr, Milford Dolliole, Darryl Reeves, and others. It also indicated how these figures were linked intimately to the history of the state’s jazz and Mardi Gras Indian communities. 35 While the traditional building arts and craftsmanship of the state were celebrated, across Louisiana a range of new and expanded museums and art centers were built, then opened, during the first decade of the twenty first century, reflecting the most comprehensive range of art museum projects ever planned or constructed in, and supported by, the state of Louisiana. Projects supported by the administration of Governor Mike Foster and the State of Louisiana included building the new Stephen Goldring Hall at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans (opened in August of 2003), near the new National D-Day Museum, also supported by state funding (opened in June of 2000). Both were part of a downtown cultural revival program based in the Warehouse Arts District of New Orleans. Months later, the New Orleans Museum of Art opened the new Besthoff Sculpture Gardens complex in City Park (November 2003). Two art facilities in Lafayette were supported by the State, including construction of the new Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (opened in October 2003), adjoining the University’s 204 ART IN CONTEMPORARY LOUISIANA Art Center (opened in 1967), designed by A. Hays Town (modeled upon the Hermitage Plantation, 1828, in Darrow, Louisiana). The second Lafayette project consisted of building phase one of the Acadiana Center for the Arts, including the renovation and adaptive reuse of the former Heymann Department Store (opened in October of 2004) as part of a new arts and culture district in Lafayette; phase two of this project, centered on a musical performance space, opened in November of 2010. The extensive new Shaw Center for the Arts, supported by the State of Louisiana and LSU, opened in 2005 in downtown Baton Rouge as another urban redevelopment project, containing the new LSU Museum of Art, the new Manship Theatre complex, the Hartley/Vey Theatres and the LSU School of Art Glassell Gallery. In 2004, Louisiana unveiled many of its arts and culture advancements to the larger world as a series of major national and international cultural conventions presented in New Orleans with related events planned across the state. The American Association of Museums (AAM) hosted its annual convention in the city in 2004, bringing thousands of museum professionals to Louisiana, many not having visited the city or state since the last Louisiana AAM conference in the 1980s, allowing them to see how notably the cultural landscape had changed. In New Orleans, in addition to the Ogden Museum’s Stephen Goldring Hall, the Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the National D-Day Museum, this included being able to see the Woldenberg Arts Center at Tulane University, the Ashé Arts Center in Central City, the Backstreet Cultural Museum, and other arts and cultural institutions across the city, as well as a range of new and expanded art galleries in the Warehouse Arts District, the French Quarter, Magazine Street, and other neighborhoods. The International Glass Arts Society also held its annual convention in New Orleans in 2004, as did the Craft Emergency Relief Foundation and the International Sculpture Society. Collectively, these events brought thousands of art professionals and cultural writers to the state, showcasing the booming cultural economy and arts world of Louisiana. By the end of 2004, New Orleans tourism officials reported that more than 10 million tourist and convention visitors had http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=996 http://knowla.org/entry.php?rec=880 http://knowla.org/entry.php?rec=886 http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1335 http://knowla.org/entry.php?rec=827

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A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana

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