Who knew so much beauty could come from so much devastation?
Six years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, the city now hosts the country’s largest biennial art event, Prospect New Orleans, which owes its creation to the storm.
“If it wasn’t for Katrina, the idea would have never occurred to me,” said Dan Cameron, creator and artistic director of Prospect New Orleans.
The first of the every-two-years event, Prospect.1, premiered in 2008, and the second, Prospect.2, opened in October and will close Sunday.
Cameron will lecture in Dodson Auditorium today at 5 p.m. to discuss the exhibition, which features work from 27 international artists, including eight local artists. Artist Alexis Rockman’s panoramic mural painting, which took a year to complete, is on display at the Contemporary Art Center and is one of the exhibition’s must-sees, he said.
Cameron, a former New York City museum curator, said various artists reached out to him after Katrina to help revive the broken city.
Cameron ï¬rst visited the Big Easy in 1987.
“I went for an art event, and I stayed for Jazz Fest,” he said.
The artist said he fell in love with the festival and began attending every year — arranging his schedule to enjoy the city for three, four or sometimes 10 days.
To Cameron, New Orleans was a place for leisure rather than business — until local artists presented the idea for an exhibit.
“I had done different biennials internationally in Europe and Asia, and I was familiar with the form,” he said. “I thought that I could get enough support in the contemporary art world to bring people to New Orleans.”
And he did.
Cameron said the project began in 2006 with the intention to bring contemporary art tourists to New Orleans and give recognition to the city’s visual artists.
Then, in 2008, Prospect.1 premiered with a bang, Cameron said.
“For a lot of people in the art world, Prospect.1 was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said.
Cameron said the second installment was postponed in 2010 due to funding constraints. Dawn DeDeaux, Prospect.2 artist, said the event is vital for the community, but she’s concerned about its future.
“I hope that the city of New Orleans and the state recognize the significance of the event and make sure that Prospect.3 happens,” she said.
Cameron’s lecture today will not be the ï¬rst time he has visited University halls.
Cameron substituted for art history professor Susan Ryan while she wrote a book during the fall 2011 semester. The class concerned the history of biennials and their meaning to the art world, he said.
“It was a really amazing opportunity to have somebody who could explain from his personal experience in the ï¬eld about biennials,” said Rae Jung Wilburn, art history graduate student.
Wilburn said Cameron’s hands-on class focused on his exhibits’ messages, along with honing in on individual artists within the shows, and allowed students to participate heavily in Prospect New Orleans.
Half of the classes were spent traveling to New Orleans, Wilburn said. Students met with Prospect artists, including DeDeaux, and visited venues like the New Orleans Museum of Art.
“We were meeting with the artists, getting their perspective and seeing how they approach exhibitions,” she said.
Wilburn said Cameron’s class was a valuable experience, but his insights were invaluable, and having his expertise, guidance and encouragement was incredible.
Cameron left the job after the semester’s end, just as he will depart as Prospect’s artistic director after P.2. Conventional biennials change leadership every two years, and Cameron has been the event’s artistic director since the start, he said.
Cameron said he is returning to the ï¬eld he is most familiar with — curating at the Orange County Museum of Arts in Newport Beach, Calif.
But he isn’t abandoning Prospect New Orleans. He bought a house in New Orleans so he can return.
“My original idea of settling down in New Orleans when it’s time for me to retire is my longtime goal,” Cameron said. “I’ll still be involved in Prospect indirectly, but rather than being one of those directors that stays and stays forever, I thought it would be better to turn the reins over to someone else.”
 
 
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Contact Ferris McDaniel at [email protected]