New York-based art critic Hrag Vartanian included a quote from Natalie and I in an article he wrote for the Brooklyn Rail...he was present at the gallery talk on January 17.
It's a very thoughtful article, many thanks Hrag!
Brooklyn Rail - New York,NY,USA
[...] Back in New York, on January 17th, a special panel at the Winkleman Gallery coinciding with the exhibition Things Fall Apart included members of a New Orleans art collective, The Front. Two of them, Natalie Sciortino and Rachel Jones, offered their perspective on Prospect. 1.
Knowing that the spotlight would not remain forever, the city was already preparing for the aftermath. As Sciortino explained, "We had a lecture...about what we could do after this UFO of Prospect.1 had come and gone. It was about being sustainable there, about organizing ourselves and doing it ourselves."
Jones offered her own assessment, "In New Orleans tourism is king, so if you can prove that you can get people to come into the city and spend some time and spend money, then the general public can get excited about it. It was good in a way that people take the visual arts more seriously because they can see it as a draw in a way that the music culture has always been... they at least respect the fact that it can be an economic force in the city."
[...]
Knowing that the spotlight would not remain forever, the city was already preparing for the aftermath. As Sciortino explained, "We had a lecture...about what we could do after this UFO of Prospect.1 had come and gone. It was about being sustainable there, about organizing ourselves and doing it ourselves."
Jones offered her own assessment, "In New Orleans tourism is king, so if you can prove that you can get people to come into the city and spend some time and spend money, then the general public can get excited about it. It was good in a way that people take the visual arts more seriously because they can see it as a draw in a way that the music culture has always been... they at least respect the fact that it can be an economic force in the city."
[...]
