Source: Next American City

A look at the Prospect. 1 New Orleans biennial which brought 81 artists from around the globe to create works in random and not-so-random sites scattered around the city:

P1 opened Halloween weekend. [Organizer Dan]vCameron estimates that more than 3,500 people flew in that opening Friday, a number I can partially vouch for given the three New Yorkers who camped out in my apartment and seemed to be getting a lot of phone calls from other New Yorkers who were in town. In subsequent weeks, the influx of art-bound tourists has waned. Local museums hosting exhibitions reported attendance numbers for Nov. 5-9 ranging from 747 at the Prospect One show at the Old U.S. Mint to 1,910 at the New Orleans Museum. The numbers indicate that initial hopes of bringing 100,000 visitors to the city may prove too ambitious. But more important than the number of booked hotel rooms or crowded sofas is the impact the show could have on our understanding of this city’s resilience. At a critical point in the city’s lagging recovery the dreamers came together and won. The idea worked.

[Post pic of Peter Nadin’s “The First Mark”.]