Parlour Gallery and Camp Street Studios: Creative Equity & Community in New Orleans’ Arts District

Five New Orleans-based artists joined together to develop a site with studios at below-market rents and gallery space at 822 Camp Street in New Orleans’ Arts District. Cristina Molina, Sara Madandar, Ryn Wilson, Nurhan Gokturk, and Tom Walton had been variously connected through artist-run gallery The Front and The Joan Mitchell Center Residency program, with additional overlaps throughout New Orleans’ wide-ranging art ecosystem. Their experiences in such environments would shape their vision for an equitable artist-run center with multiple purposes; Camp Street Studios were established first in early 2022, and the Parlour Gallery opened its doors to the public with the inaugural exhibition, “Echoes and Shadows”, in January 2023. This first exhibition spoke to the building’s history as each founding member exhibited artwork that envisioned their presence as part of a larger continuum.