In 2022, with Taylor as Artistic Director, Prospect New Orleans launched the inaugural Artists of Public Memory Commission, a new initiative that invites Louisiana-based contemporary artists to share their visions of how symbols, monuments, and collective memories can appear and function in our landscape, society, and public space.
This initiative marks the first time Prospect has invited Louisiana-based curators and cultural organizations to nominate artists for a public art commission (rather than a curatorial selection of artists), the first time Prospect has produced an exhibit of solely Louisiana artists of color, and the first exhibition sited entirely on public land.
The inaugural Artists of Public Memory Commission includes:
This work results from the tireless conviction, creativity, and commitment of an incredible set of individuals and organizations from across Louisiana and Mississippi; thank you all.
Prospect New Orleans is a recurring civic exhibition of art modeled after an idea that originated with the Venice Biennial in 1895. Designed according to this model, Prospect is a citywide contemporary art triennial and the first exhibition of its kind in the U.S. with a decade-long history. Every three years, Prospect invites artists from around the globe to engage with New Orleans and raises the voices of artists who represent the Global South.
In 2020, Prospect had secured a $2M grant from the Mellon Foundation to develop new public art commissions and public programming around the theme of "monuments." That year, Taylor was hired as Prospect's first Programs and Audience Engagement Manager and the Artistic Director of this new Mellon Foundation and Open Society Foundations-supported initiative. In 2020, the first phase of the commission was conducted in tandem with the Prospect.5 Triennial: "Yesterday we said tomorrow" and included new public artworks by Simone Leigh, Anastasia Pelias, Glenn Ligon, Nari Ward, and EJ Hill.
That year, Taylor began convening activists, arts, historical, and cultural organizations in our city, including Ashe, Paper Monuments, New Orleans Street Renaming Commission, Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies, New Orleans African American Museum, The Black School, among others, to begin to imagine how we might collectively site new art projects and support artists so that they renegotiate actual, political, and ecological geographies in New Orleans.
In 2023, Taylor was appointed Deputy Director of Prospect New Orleans, and the three Artists of Public Memory Commissions were installed across New Orleans.
The 2023 Artists of Public Memory Commission inaugural artists: kai lumumba barrow, Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun, and an Intertribal Collective consisting of Ida Aronson, Tammy Greer, Jenna Mae, Ozone 504, Monique Verdin, and Virginia Richard. Project StafF: LB Barfield, Shana griffin, Nora Kovacs, Taylor Holloway, and Monique Verdin.