Holy Moly! A Historic--and green--Holy Cross

In honor of the Saints' Super Bowl victory, I'd like to highlight some of the great things happening in the Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orleans' 9th Ward.

Holy Cross is located east of the French Quarter and Marigny along the river bank. Primarily it is famous for its gingerbread-esque "River Boat Houses", that thankfully most of which survived Katrina relatively intact. Thanks to an active, vocal civic group called the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association (HCNA), Holy Cross was named the "Best Comeback Neighborhood" by Southern Living Magazine in December.

The neighborhood couldn't have done it though without the help and energy of a number of other organizations. Historic Green is a unique organization that seeks to revitalize New Orleans through sustainability practices and heritage conservation. According to the organization's vision, it "represents a blend of the past, the present and the future." New Orleans' 9th Ward--particularly the historic Holy Cross neighborhood--is one of its laboratories. Not only is the neighborhood a focus for its hands-on revitalization workshop (Mar 9-19, 2010), but Historic Green volunteers do on-going projects such as helping residents establish rain gardens on their properties.

Another organization at work in Holy Cross is the Preservation Resource Center (PRC). Since Katrina, PRC has invested over $2 million in the purchase and rehabilitation of Holy Cross homes. Once these homes are ready to sell, many go to first-time home-buyers and others to help re-populate the neighborhood and bring back its vitality. As part of its Preserving Green initiative, PRC is currently planning for the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association Center, which will be a reconstruction of the neighborhood's prototypical "camelback" architecture. Not only will the building serve as the focus for community gatherings and other civic functions, it will also employ green building technologies.

If historic architecture is not your aesthetic but Holy Cross is your location, Global Green is an option. "Global Green" homes are new structures that are modern in their design, yet complement the neighborhood's existing context in setback, height, and other structural characteristics. These homes are intended to serve as models for new, green construction practices in New Orleans that respects the city's heritage but also look to the future character of the community as it rebuilds.


And finally, this wouldn't be a Community Memory Project post without a dose of art thrown in. Prospect New Orleans is a biennial show of contemporary art held in New Orleans. This is no every-day art event however. The main goal of Prospect is to play a significant role in the revitalization of the city by building an art tourism infrastructure and supporting local artists and entrepreneurs. With installations across the city, some poignant ones highlight the history--and the loss--experienced in the 9th ward. The first biennial was in 2008, with the next schedule for Nov 13, 2010 - Feb 13, 2011.

What makes this a particularly inspiring example of Community Memory is the number of different organizations that have invested and collaborated in a single neighborhood to make change happen. The residents and organizations at work in Holy Cross are not only saving the historic character of their neighborhood, but improving it so that future generations can live more sustainably amongst the Boat Houses and along the river.

Hidden City

The success of the Hidden City Festival in Philadelphia makes me giddy. In early summer 2009, Peregrine Arts--in concert with a number of local organizations and sponsors--hosted a 5-week festival that highlighted some forgotten historic treasures of Philadelphia. What made the festival particularly interesting was not only public access to locked-down buildings, but using the structures as venues for contemporary art performances and installations. To me, this is the perfect embodiment of a new approach to celebrating history: it's fun; it reaches across interests and social groups; it created new public access to historic resources; and it blends a number of elements into a memorable and unique experience.

Nine sites throughout the City were featured, including the Disston Saw Works, Founder's Hall at Girard College, and a number of churches. For each site, a local or international artist was commissioned to create a piece inspired by the history of the structure. Six sites hosted visual arts projects that were open to the public during set weekend hours; the other three sites served as venues for music or dance pieces but were also accessible to the public for a general gander during the days of performances. What was particularly cool about this event was that it engaged three different audiences that don't typically overlap: history enthusiasts, contemporary art-lovers, and urban explorers (abandoned places hobbyists, like these guys http://www.urbanexplorers.net/). The elements of all three were not only present, but added value to one another for an experience that was greater than the sum of its parts. For example, the average audience for the Group Motion Dance Company is about 200; their Hidden City performance at the old Metropolitan Opera House was experienced by 1,210 audience members. Performances for most events were 100% sold-out, and in some cases oversold. Some of the most popular tickets were for bus tours that took in a number of sites on the same day, and provided "behind the scenes" tours.

Why blog about it now? Well, the Festival did the critical step of evaluating its impact. A recently published report on the Festival reveals the magnitude of its success: over one million website hits, 10,000 visitors, and 3,044 event tickets sold. The Festival is an excellent example of how arts, history, and culture are not just fluffy amenities, but can have significant economic impact: it is estimated that the Festival created about $1.2 million in expenditures from organizations and attendees (imagine what that means for the local multiplier as well!). But perhaps the best outcome of the Festival is its long-lasting changes it has inspired. Apparently, the drop forge buliding at Disston Saw Works is no longer on the chopping block to be demolished, and there are now discussions about Shiloh Baptist Church becoming activated as a community/cultural center. And good news: plans are in the works for a second Hidden City festival in 2012. Mark your calendar.

To read more, check out the great article from Philadelphia City Paper: http://citypaper.net/articles/2009/05/28/my-city-was-gone

Or...go straight the source: http://www.hiddencityphila.org/