Planning January 2018
No Place Like It
New Orleans is alive with culture. Music flows through the city's veins and its streets pulse with parades and festivals. And just thinking of the food — both from famous dining dynasties and hole-in-the-wall kitchens — makes your mouth water.
Arts and culture is not just central to the identity of New Orleans, it is also foundational to the economy, with the cultural industry accounting for 14 percent of total employment in 2016. Planning comes through the Office of Cultural Economy, and another key group, the nonprofit Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans, bills itself as working at "the intersection of culture and policy."
One of the Mardi Gras Indian tribes at a Fat Tuesday parade. "Orange Feather Costume" by Derek Bridges, Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
Cultural Economy
4.4 million attendees of Mardi Gras and other New Orleans festivals
$904 million economic impact from festivals
869 restaurants and specialty food stores
141 art galleries
136 live music venues
Source: 2016 New Orleans Cultural Economy Snapshot
Jazz combo in a Frenchmen Street tavern, Marigny. "Jazz Combo" by Philip Scalia/Alamy Stock Photo.
When the Going Is Smooth and Good (2017) by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, part of the Prospect.4 tricentennial-themed exhibition. © Njideka Akunyili Crosby, courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro, London/Venice.
2018: New Orleans's Tricentennial Year
New Orleans menu board. "Menu Board" by Craig Richardson/Alamy Stock Photo.
Sample highlights of New Orleans's 300 years while you're at NPC. Start at the beginning with a look at the city's earliest days with the exhibit New Orleans, the Founding Era at the Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal Street (hnoc.org).
Then fast-forward to the birth of jazz at the New Orleans Jazz Museum, housed in the historic Old U.S. Mint near the Frenchmen Street live music corridor (nolajazzmuseum.org).
Finally, don't miss today's thriving art scene at the Contemporary Arts Center (cadno.org) or the city's oldest art museum, the New Orleans Museum of Art (noma.org). The two museums were recently part of Prospect.4, the fourth in a series of exhibitions of sculpture, paintings, photos, and installations by artists from around the world since the acclaimed post-Katrinia Prospect.1 in 2008.