Prospect New Orleans

Profil

Founded in 2008 by Dan Cameron , Prospect New Orleans is the largest biennial of international contemporary art in the United States. Conceived in the tradition of the great international biennials, such as the Venice Biennale and the Bienal de São Paulo, Prospect New Orleans showcases new artistic practices from around the world and contributes to the revitalization of New Orleans by spurring tourism and bringing international attention to the city's vibrant visual arts community. In its inaugural year, Prospect.1 New Orleans featured 81 artists who exhibited at 24 venues throughout the city, occupying a combined 200,000 square feet of space spread widely over miles of the city's eclectic and historic neighborhoods. From November 2008 through January 2009, Prospect.1 attracted 42,000 individual visitors (88,000 admissions), generating over $23 million in economic activity.

Due in large part to the current economic conditions and decreases in funding for the arts nationally, U.S. Biennial elected to postpone Prospect.2 by one year. Prospect.2 is now scheduled to open to the public on October 22, 2011, and will be on view until January 29, 2012. Prospect New Orleans will remain active in the New Orleans community during the next year with a series of programs, exhibitions, and other art-related events mounted in cooperation with local institutions and organizations and focused on local artists.

Prospect New Orleans is organized under the auspices of U.S. Biennial, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in New York with offices in New Orleans. U.S. Biennial, Inc., was launched in January 2007, and its first project was Prospect.1. Read more about Dan Cameron , the founder and curator, below.

THE VISION

Prospect New Orleans was founded on the principle that the art of our time can play a significant role in the revitalization of an important U.S. city. As it evolves from a first-time biennial in Prospect.1 to a local tradition with each subsequent Prospect New Orleans, the biennial remains committed to building a contemporary art tourism infrastructure upon a signature event that galvanizes local art creation and entrepreneurial activity, while attracting tens of thousands of art lovers to New Orleans every-other-year.

By assigning social progress and aesthetic criteria nearly equal weight in the making of Prospect.1, the fundamentally educational message that was implicit in that first biennial will receive a similar degree of attention in Prospect.2. This focus continues to be developed as part of the direct, ongoing collaboration with the residents, neighborhoods, and institutions of New Orleans.

In the words of Cameron, "New Orleans has long been an urban wonderland where creative spirits by the thousands came from elsewhere to live and work, and from that starting point, it is becoming transformed into a place where art lovers from around the world can indulge in the city's natural and cultural beauty, while enjoying some of the most exciting new art being made today. We are working to make Prospect New Orleans a model example of how art can promote social justice and be a catalyst for the revitalization of a historic American city."