Historically, New Orleans has been regarded as a city deeply rooted in its past. For Prospect.6, Susan Brennan Co-Artistic Directors Miranda Lash and Ebony G. Patterson posit New Orleans as a globally relevant point of departure for examining our collective future as it relates to climate change, legacies of colonialism, and definitions of belonging and home. Prospect is thrilled to open its sixth iteration of the triennial, Prospect.6: The Future Is Present, The Harbinger Is Home, on view to the public in New Orleans from Saturday, November 2, 2024, until Sunday, February 2, 2025. Continuing its legacy as the longest-running citywide contemporary art triennial, Prospect.6 will feature the work of fifty-one artists spanning approximately twenty venues. The vast majority of the works on view will be newly commissioned, with an emphasis on large-scale and ambitious installations in institutional, unconventional, and public spaces. This year will also mark the US debut of internationally acclaimed works by six of the participating artists. 

Ebony G. Patterson (left) and Miranda Lash (right), Susan Brennan Co-Artistic Director of Prospect.6. Frank Ishman, Prospect

With regard to New Orleanians as Prospect’s first audience, the co-artistic directors are inspired by the city’s unique ability to offer poignant lessons and models for how to live in constant negotiation with a warming planet, grounded within a community that reflects the global majority, and in direct proximity to the effects of colonial and exploitative economies. The exhibition urges consideration of the question What does it mean to think of a harbinger as a gift? Lash and Patterson ask: What does it mean to speak “from” a place, rather than ”at” it? If a biennial or triennial is traditionally considered in relation to its “host” city (a term with parasitic implications), what does it mean to “hold” a city, a gesture that suggests care and reverence? In the spirit of the triennial’s city-wide model, this year’s presentation will envelop the different neighborhoods of New Orleans, mounting major artistic presentations from world-renowned artists across venues like Newcomb Art Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Historic New Orleans Collection, and Harmony Circle. 

Prospect.6: The Future Is Present, The Harbinger Is Home is strongly informed by contributions of living artists, either based in or with ties to Louisiana, such as Hannah Chalew, Thomas Deaton, Christian Ðinh, Abdi Farah, L. Kasimu Harris, Blas Isasi, Ruth Owens, Brooke Pickett, and Ashley Teamer. The triennial also employs the notion of foresight and futurity in New Orleans and places like New Orleans, featuring artists from regions connected to Louisiana through historic paths of forced or voluntary migration and diaspora, including the Caribbean, Central and South America, indigenous North America, Southeast Asia, and Africa, to emphasize the very essence of home within an ever-changing environment. 

Prospect offers numerous opportunities to engage with artists and their works across the city during the triennial, many of which are part of our VIP Program. Discover more about our sixth edition, the VIP Program, and upcoming events, including the Prospect.6 Gala, by visiting prospect6.org.