In hopes of revivifying an area that has seen livelier days, Kenner officials are working with the Arts Council of New Orleans to transform Rivertown into the Left Bank, starting with studios for local Picassos. Newly minted as an official Louisiana cultural district, the historic stretch of Williams Boulevard is today home to a handful of vacant museums, relics of...
In hopes of revivifying an area that has seen livelier days, Kenner officials are working with the Arts Council of New Orleans to transform Rivertown into the Left Bank, starting with studios for local Picassos. Newly minted as an official Louisiana cultural district, the historic stretch of Williams Boulevard is today home to a handful of vacant museums, relics of an abandoned effort dating from the 1980s to bill Rivertown as a home to culture.
But how does the city transform a museum, where dusty displays hide behind glass, to a space where artists might throw down raw paint in real time? First step: Ask some artists.
On July 8, the Arts Council distributed a survey asking creatives what they seek in a work space. What size is ideal? What price? And in what medium do they work: fiber? video? digital design? Does their oeuvre require 220-volt wiring?
Gene Meneray, director of arts business program at the council, emailed the link. He would not comment on it Friday, deferring until organizers are more certain it would come to pass. Michael Ince of the of the Kenner Planning Department declined to comment.
The survey described the possible art colony as "a suburban commercial district, located in a designated Louisiana Cultural District on the East Bank of Jefferson Parish." That sounds like Rivertown, and in an interview last week, Ince said he had been working with Meneray to see what Rivertown could offer in the way of art studios.
Meneray was, Ince had said, intrigued by the potential of former museums. For instance: artist-ready floors. "Some of them are actual concrete," Ince said. "Gene at the Arts Council was really excited about that. They can get paint on the floors."
Gaye Hamilton, state coordinator of the cultural district program, spoke last week about Rivertown's new designation. "To me, what makes it work is the attitude, more so than any single structure. It is about trying to be creative with what they have."
"We want it to be a catered situation for any kind of artist," Ince said.
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Take the survey here.