New Orleans Building Arts Project

More Than Just a Trade: Master Craftsmen of the Building Arts -- features each of the craftsmen who participated in our survey of the building arts of New Orleans.

This large and extensive survey will not, as similar but smaller projects have done, focus on residents' experiences of coastal land loss. The Coastal Communities Survey will focus on the culture(s) of coastal communities in several highly endangered areas. Recognizing the fundamental connectedness of environment and culture which is particularly evident in coastal Louisiana, this survey will bring out that connection by documenting the living culture, including ways of earning a living, food gathering, foodways, social occasions, family and/or community stories, family life, religious expression, and church-based activities.

Louisiana is at present strongly engaged in an effort to obtain funding for restoring our coast. If the effort succeeds some change will, nevertheless, take place, and this survey will be valuable as a marker for "before restoration." The state will very likely find this survey helpful in demonstrating what stands to be lost, as well as the economic consequences of lost tourism in South Louisiana. If the coast is not saved, this survey will document the culture of the time shortly before many residents had to leave.

Seventy percent of Louisiana's population-French, Creole, Cajun, Native-American, African-American, and Anglo-American, Spanish, German, Irish, Italian, Vietnamese, Croatian, Isleño, Filipino, and other communities—lives within the 18,000 square miles of the coastal zone. Without restoration they must move, or they will be moved following disaster.

This is a timely project that will support the endeavors of groups such as PACE (Parishes Against Coastal Erosion) formed by, among others, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon, Jefferson Parish Council Chairman Aaron Broussard, St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis, St. Charles Parish President Albert Laque, St. John Parish President Nickie Monica, and St. Bernard Parish President Charles Ponstein. They are addressing, on a national level, issues of concern such as the energy bill proposed in Congress, the proposed constitutional amendment regarding coastal erosion, the Corps of Engineers' public input phase of "The Louisiana Coastal Area Plan," and other topics and initiatives.

At the Seventh Biennial "Basics of the Basin" Research Symposium in May, 2004, participants stressed that, in order to effect real change at a national level, legislators must be made aware of the human costs of ongoing environmental degradation. "Putting a human face to the problem" was identified as the most important task facing those who work to conserve our state and our culture, especially in terms of raising Louisiana's needs to prominence on the national agenda. The Coastal Communities Survey will capture not only the concerns of Louisiana's coastal residents, but will document, celebrate, and present the vitality, philosophical humor, apprehension, and ingenuity with which our citizens face the challenges inherent in life along Louisiana's coastline.

Check this site for materials as they come in. And contact us for more information, or if you would like to participate.

The Louisiana Quilt Documentation Project identifies and documents quilts and other women's textiles made in Louisiana from the days of earliest settlement of the state to the present.

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