New Orleans is the international capital of jazz, often considered the United States' greatest indigenous art form. It is home to a distinctive architecture and a Creole culture and cuisine found nowhere else. African American cultural traditions born and sustained in New Orleans—Second Line dancing, Mardi Gras Indian pageantry, jazz funerals—are respected and beloved around the world. Because the arts and culture of New Orleans are a treasure, it is essential to find ways to preserve and rebuild these American traditions in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Unlike the cultural assets of some other places, those in New Orleans are rooted firmly in the community. Rather than its museums and symphony halls, it is the people, neighborhoods, local organizations and small businesses of New Orleans that make it culturally distinct. Therefore, this list of readings concentrates on resources that focus on reengineering the nonprofit cultural sector in ways targeted toward community rebuilding. The nonprofit cultural sector is critical to this work in three important ways: creating and housing expressions of public memory, contributing to community development and sustainability, and supporting community-based arts and culture. The standard indicators currently being collected on Katrina recovery include no data directly related to arts and cultural assets and resources in New Orleans. This puts the cultural sector at a significant disadvantage to other policy areas where good indicators are already available and continue to be collected. An extensive review of available data could identify no statistics on small and mid-sized cultural organizations in the affected areas. Even basic information on whether these organizations are open and operating is not publicly available. The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation (LCEF) has surveyed 25 representative nonprofit cultural organizations from around the state. These data are thin, but they seem to indicate that cultural institutions are recovering much more effectively than individuals. For example, although 19 of the 25 organizations surveyed have reopened, only half their pre-Katrina full-time jobs are currently filled. LCEF also reports that among Louisiana artists as of fall 2005, 10,000 artists and cultural workers are jobless, 10,000 are displaced, 2,000 have lost artwork and workspace, and 200-300 have serious health needs. |
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