The Arts Council of New Orleans is excited to be working with some of the area’s most talented visual artists to create works of art to be placed throughout New Orleans. Click here to see them all . In collaboration with the Joan Mitchell Foundation ., twenty artists will receive $25,000 to create public art and to rebuild their artistic careers. Through the 2008 New Orleans Art in Public Places Commissions, artists from Louisiana and Mississippi who were affected by Katrina or Rita were eligible to apply. The Call to Artists was initially for ten commissions, but due to the extraordinary response, the artistic diversity and the high quality of the proposals, the opportunity was expanded to twenty-one commissions funded by the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Recipients include the following artists:

Franco Alessandrini
Barry Bailey
Ryan Ballard
Raine Bedsole
Lou Blackwell
Marcus Brown
Christopher Scott Brumfield
Catherine Burke
“Generic Art Solutions”: Tony Campbell and Matt Vis
Eric Dallimore
Dawn DeDeaux
Paul Deo
Rashida Ferdinand
Mitchell Gaudet and Erica Larken
Shannon Landis Hansen and Erik Hansen
Sally Heller
Alex Podesta
Christopher Saucedo
Jim Sohr
Michel Varisco

The commissions provide the opportunity for local and regional artists to showcase their work parallel to the upcoming international exhibits: Prospect.1 Biennial and Sculpture for New Orleans. The twenty-one projects will be installed beginning in October 2008 and remain on view for at least two years

The Joan Mitchell Foundation was established in April 1993 as a not-for-profit corporation following the death of artist Joan Mitchell in October 1992. The Foundation strives to fulfill Ms. Mitchell’s goal to aid and assist the needs of contemporary artists and to demonstrate that painting and sculpture are significant cultural necessities.