Historically, New Orleans has been considered a city deeply rooted in its past; for Prospect.6, the curators posit New Orleans as a globally relevant origin for examining our collective future as it relates to climate change, legacies of colonialism, and definitions of “home.” What if New Orleans, a predominantly BIPOC city deeply impacted by hurricanes and receding coastline, histories of violence, and a commitment to celebration in the face of adversity, was considered a harbinger for the world that is to come? Can a harbinger be conceived of as a gift? This framework postulates New Orleans, along with other more climate-vulnerable regions in the world, as already living in the “future” that other places will experience. With alarming speed, more regions of the world are experiencing the immediate effects of climate change and dramatic shifts in economic and government function. New Orleans is thereby approached as a gift to the rest of the world in its ability to offer lessons and examples for how to live in constant negotiation with the weather, grounded within a community that reflects the global majority, and in direct proximity to the effects and aftereffects of colonial and exploitative economies.

Miranda Lash is one of the two artistic codirectors of Prospect.6. She is senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Previously, she was curator of contemporary art at the Speed Museum in Louisville. Prior to that, she was the founding curator of contemporary art at the New Orleans Museum of Art, where she spent six years of her career. She has curated retrospectives of Mel Chin, Ebony G. Patterson, Eamon Ore-Giron and many others, and cocurated, with Trevor Schoonmaker, the acclaimed 2017 exhibition Southern Accent.

Ebony G. Patterson is one of the two artistic codirectors of Prospect.6, and the first artist ever to hold this position. Based between Kingston, Jamaica and Chicago, she was awarded the David C. Driskell Prize by the High Museum of Art , in recognition of her contributions to the field of African American art. Patterson has mounted more than 50 exhibitions in the past decade and is anticipating forthcoming solo exhibitions at the New York Botanical Garden and the Arnolfini Museum in Bristol, England.

Through a major triennial exhibition and community partnerships, Prospect gives artists stages throughout New Orleans to propose the city as a canvas for possibility. The vision is for New Orleans to be a global model for crafting equal and inclusive communities through contemporary art.