CAC Members’
QUARTERLY 2 What a season awaits us! The Contemporary Arts Center calls in the New Year and the New Orleans Tricentennial with a phenomenally diverse series of artists engaging with the art, people, and issues of our time. In this newsletter, we feature two key staff members, who talk about their work at the CAC. Colleagues with whom I am proud to serve, these individuals are responsible for creating the magic that becomes the world-class exhibitions we present and the conversations and events that bring diverse audiences together for unforgettable experiences. We also profile Alphonse Smith, who has played a leadership role as a volunteer and member of the CAC. In addition to serving on our Audience Advisory Committee and SweetArts Committee, he and his collaborator Ayo Scott have enriched our work by bringing their spoken word poetry series Pass it On to the CAC, where poets and audience members have been able to respond and react to the artists and ideas of our season. Our New Year launches with a landmark presentation by the celebrated dance company Urban Bush Women as we present Hair & Other Stories in January— part of our ongoing partnership with Junebug Productions, who continue to be an unparalleled partner in art-making in our community. Following that, outstanding new music comes to the CAC in the form of native-son Christian
Scott aTunde Adjuah and his ensemble performing their latest album Stretch Music, and the internationally renowned saxophonist Miguel Zenon and his band performing Típico. These not-to-bemissed performances bridge the closing of one major group exhibition and the opening of two new solo exhibitions produced by the CAC. Prospect 4: The Lotus in Spite of the Swamp, on view now, has been hailed for the diversity of artistic voices. Opening in March, Sarah Morris and Jockum Nordstrom’s solo exhibitions will open another chapter in the ongoing series of CAC exhibitions that dive deeply into the work of individual artists who have and continue to define the “art of our time” both locally and around the world. Neil A. Barclay Director and CEO
Urban Bush Women. Photo: Hayim Heron
It’s Winter Now, Jockum Nordström, 2009. Photo: Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London and Galleri Magnus Karlsson, Sweden