Thomas Mann and Hillary

New Orleans icon and Friend of the Arts Council Thomas Mann scored a nice commission this year, creating holiday gifts for Hillary Clinton. Full story here. Nice job, Tom!

The other thing to note, is though Tom has been in NOLA forever, he came here from PA one year to do Jazz Fest and stayed. We talk about the changes in technology allowing artists to live anywhere, (hopefully here!), but it's important to remember that Tom came here in the 1970's, and made a go of it. New Orleans has been a haven for artists since shortly after Bienville landed, and Tom's just one example.

Local Company Made Good

New Digital Media Group, headed by Tim Ryan and friend of the Arts Council, has been tapped to create a national commercial for Google. Very exciting, and another example of how you can be based in New Orleans and work from anywhere. With no real traffic, relatively cheap rents, mild winters, and 24 hour bars with killer music, NOLA's pretty nice when you can grab a job for the Googles of the world.

St Claude Ave Art Scene

Unlike the other raving reviews, this article focuses on P1 as re-developing the city, esp St. Claude Ave, obviously a big thing for this (now back in action) blog! We really are watching something impressive happen with St. Claude Ave. All this new action makes me wonder if this was what it was like in the late 1970's for those people involved with developing the CAC and Julia St.

It should be fun to be a part of. We all know that St. Claude's the future of contemporary art in NOLA. The foot traffic on the ave since P1 opened is dramatic, and assuming Colton keeps rolling, it should have long term benefits.

Big List meeting October 16th

A service of the Arts Council, The New Orleans Arts & Culture Big List is a combined, multi-level database of mailing lists compiled from participating local arts and culture organizations. In 2008, nineteen organizations combined to create the list, resulting in over 35,000 unique addresses for area arts patrons.
On October 16th all current Big List partners, and any arts based non profits who are interested in becoming a part of the 2009 Big List are invited to a meeting at 2:00 p.m. at the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 938 Lafayette St in New Orleans.

For more information on the Big List, please visit http://www.artscouncilofneworleans.org/index.php?topic=abp.biglist.

Crescent City Art Project Needs Volunteers

Local non profit and Arts Business Program client the Crescent City Art Project is looking for volunteers for their massive (and I do mean massive) mural project on October 29th. Here's the complete story.

Ze Daluz on film

Bayou Boogaloo artist Ze Daluz describes her craft on the grounds in Norfolk.

Donald Camp Exhibition

Top notch photographer, and friend of the Arts Council Donald Camp has a show of dynamic portraits of New Orleanians opening at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts. Donald visited with us last year in preparation for this show, and we're thrilled to see it come about. If you happen to find yourself in his nieghborhood, check it out!