Artists of Public Memory is a new public art commission that invites Louisiana artists to share their visions of how monuments and collective memories can appear and function in our landscape, society, and public space. This initiative marks the first time Prospect has invited Louisiana-based curators and cultural organizations to nominate artists for a public art commission. Distinct from Prospect.6, which is scheduled to open in Fall 2024, Artists of Public Memory represents a key part of Prospect’s commitment to having a broader presence in New Orleans that extends beyond the parameters of the triennial exhibition. 

Our Guiding Questions

• What is a monument and to whom or what is it in service?

• Which Louisiana stories, movements, groups, and individuals should be honored in public space?

• How can Prospect elevate artists’ voices in the local and national conversation around how monuments and symbols appear in our civic landscape?

• How might Louisiana contemporary artists explore and redefine monuments, collective memories, or memorials?

• How can we situate projects and support artists so that they renegotiate actual political and ecological geographies in the city?

Prospect New Orleans is pleased the announce the artists for our inaugural Artists of Public Memory commission: kai lumumba barrow, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, and an Intertribal Collective consisting of Ida Aronson, Tammy Greer, Jenna Mae, Ozone 504, Monique Verdin, and Virginia Richard. Learn more about the incoming cohort here.

Selected Projects

After a statewide nomination process, three projects engaging the work of nine contemporary artists have been selected to be presented in New Orleans in 2023. All three of these projects interrogate and reimagine collective memory and representation in a state with a history that is both complex and spellbinding, violent and revolutionary.

The selected projects include:

• An Intertribal Collective, comprised of Ida Aronson, Dr. Tammy Greer, Jenna Mae, Ozone 504, Virginia Richard, and Monique Verdin, will build an earthen mound to honor our ancestors and anchor our future. The project will include native plant gardens and a stickball field, providing pathways to health and healing, as well as a site for contemporary Indigenous lifeways and communal gatherings.

• kai lumumba barrow will construct an “abolitionist playground,” bringing attention to sites of carceral control while engaging counter-narratives of play and creative imagination. The project will consist of a series of sculptural installations that give physical form to the institutional ramifications of racism and modes of survival and resistance. 

• Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun will create a photographic sculpture of collective memories, including portraits, sounds, spiritual practices, and iconic sites of refuge in the Lower 9th Ward community. Featuring images captured by the artists over the past four decades, the sculpture will reimagine public space and the meaning of place, centering a community that has undergone massive changes over the past two decades.

With initial commission development support from Prospect.5 Co-Artistic Directors Naima J. Keith and Diana Nawi, these inaugural projects were selected based on the scale and scope of their work, subject matter, relationship to locality, and their creative approach to monumentality and public engagement. Each selected artist or collective will receive between $40,000 and $50,000 to produce their projects. Artists will work closely with Curatorial Advisors Shana M. griffin and Monique Verdin, as well as city agencies and community organizations, to develop and install these new works of art in prominent public greenspaces across New Orleans.

Artists of Public Memory is funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project with additional major funding from the Ford Foundation; the Lambent Foundation Fund, a fund of Tides Foundation; the Wagner Foundation; and the National Endowment for the Arts. Projects will be unveiled throughout 2023 and will include public programming, artist and community talks, youth and educational opportunities, an accompanying publication, and digital resources.