Friday, August 25, 2006

Crescent City Creole people on Texas Street: Faces of Katrina exhibit, Artspace, Shreveport

An exhibit of powerful portraits from the evacuation of New Orleans opens Fri, Aug 25 at Artspace. Designed by moviemaker Bill Joyce, the exhibit aims at informing viewers and elevating the status of the people flung out of the hurricane-raked city.

The Faces reception begins at 7 pm Friday.

Along with the photographic work of Kathryn Gaiennie, Stan Carpenter, Mike Silva, Talbot Hopkins and Philip Gould, there are materials developed by Mike McSwain and Bill Joyce.

Downstairs are clipboards, foil, video and costumes. These are elements of the art activities designed for students on school tours or on weekend visits. These projects were developed by a veteran teacher and writer: me. I had the good fortune to have a deeply thoughtful project manager in Wendy Benscoter.

Encouraged and guided by SRAC director Pam Atchison, the art-making side of Katrina has some 9 stations. It has already been booked by school field trips for a total of 200 students, says new SRAC education manager Julia Foley. Centenary's freshman English students will also be asked to visit Faces of Katrina, says Dr. Lisa Nicoletti, a Centenary professor and member of the Artspace exhibition committee.

Also terrifically helpful in assembling the artivities were Duane Rousseau and Michael Neal Philips.

The faces soundtrack festures solo piano tunes written and performed by Steve Ramey and a gospel tune, "I'll Go," from singer Monica Blake Mickle's album Perfect Peace.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WOW what a wonderful exhibit that was Friday night! I couldn't get over the number of people and the outstanding photographs!