The NOLA Artist Incubator was thrilled when the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans asked us to host the Brackish Artist Cohort today at Galvez Garden.

The selected Brackish Artist Cohort are artists who experience a four week curriculum designed to demystify the most pressing environmental issues and challenges facing Southeast Louisiana. From architects to film makers, the group demonstrated a range of talent in our community. Objectives of the program are for artist to leave informed to create work that educates others through their designated craft.

WHAT IS BRACKISH?

Brackish is an opportunity for artists to explore our complex and disconnected relationship with water in Southeast Louisiana. Each year, this program takes a new cohort of artists through a diverse curriculum centered around infrastructure, local government, and history. The aim is to create a more informed creative sector that will act as conduits of climate resilience and hope for Louisiana residents.

Led by Jessica Dandridge, Executive Director of The Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans, and Keree Blanks, Green Infrastructure and Engagement Coordinator of the Water Collaborative, the organization hosts rotating cohorts of local artists of various artforms with the goal of educating them on the environmental state of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana.

As hosts of their last week in the program, we welcomed the cohort to plant in our raised garden beds for the community garden and invited the artists to plant seeds we had saved to take home as a thank you for their work.

Our intern from Loyola, Meghan Smith, proved to be a tremendous asset to us as she applied what she’s learning to help the artists with correctly planting food and companion plants for our garden. In preparation of the cohort’s arrival, she assisted in safely separating purchased plants to increase production yield. Following the visit, she planted some seedling she started and we can’t wait for her watch them grow!

This visit marks a monumental day for our organization. It signifies activating the space just as we had always intended. Today we spoke, in open dialogue, about the ways beautified green spaces create healthier communities. Today we met new friends, untied in efforts to learn more about climate issues, in order to create productive change. Today, we collaboratively created tangible change that was beneficial for our community. Today was a great day.