Prospect.6

Founded in 2007, Prospect New Orleans is a triennial citywide exhibition of contemporary art featuring artists from Louisiana and around the globe. For Prospect’s sixth iteration, co-Artistic Directors Miranda Lash and Ebony G. Patterson highlight New Orleans’ role as a global city situated in the future, where questions around survival, continuance, and joy are being asked in advance of other places. New Orleans is also positioned as a city that reflects “the global majority,” a term used to describe the near eighty percent of the global population comprised of Indigenous, African, Asian, Latin American, and mixed-heritage peoples. The exhibition’s fifty-one artists, presented across twenty-plus venues, honor this city’s history and offer opportunities for shared contemplation, discovery, and a reimagining of possibilities.

A harbinger can be foreboding. The origins of this word, however, point towards a host, a harbor, or a scout who makes a safe space for others. Prospect.6: The Future Is Present, The Harbinger Is Home looks to New Orleans as a signal of the future, in conversation with regions of the world that have long experienced the effects of climate change, labor migration, and histories of colonialism. Together these places offer sanctuaries and indicators of the yearnings and tensions that will define our collective future.

As a venue for Prospect.6, Newcomb Art Museum features artworks by Bethany Collins, Arlette Quỳnh-Anh Trần, and Clarissa Tossin. Their historical research informs their investigations into the future of nationalism and national identity. Quỳnh-Anh Trần’s video references the role of curators and historians in shaping our understanding of national histories far into the future. Tossin looks at the implications of space exploration as other planets and galaxies become targets for future potential colonies, while Collins explores the idea of a country collectively feeling “lost at sea,” in search of its next safe haven.