Performing New Orleans: Rethinking Resilience in Art and Everyday Life

Performing New Orleans examines the value of arts and culture in managing complex urban challenges, offering new perspectives on how artistic and everyday performances can be pivotal modes of practicing resilience. Through an exploration of understudied forms of performance in New Orleans, Stuart Andrews and Patrick Duggan highlight the centrality of the city’s arts ecosystems as a vital aspect of its ability to “perform” resiliency.

Performing New Orleans resists conventional definitions of arts practice; instead, it uses a diverse array of case studies to illustrate what arts practices are, what they do, and how they can enhance our understanding of people, place, and resilience. The case studies in this volume range from playing in the streets to painting murals; from tourist flourishes to the performative effect of infrastructure projects; from the design and leadership of arts centers to the unfolding of festivals, theater performances, art installations, and even public health messaging. The authors also review, critique, and rethink resilience theory and the often problematic idea of “being resilient.”

Andrews and Duggan bring together ideas from art and architecture, cultural geography, hazard mitigation, resilience theory, sustainability, theater, and water management to explore “performances” of the city to radically expand our understanding of urban adaptability. Performing New Orleans argues that a truly resilient city is one that recognizes arts and culture professionals as crucial, critical innovators.