Christy Lorio: Get on the map

The Claiborne Corridor Cultural Collaborative (C4) Mapping Project boundaries. (via c4nola.com)

Christy Lorio (photo by Leslie Almeida)

While there’s no mistake that New Orleans is known for its rich culture, many people tend to only think of prime locations such as the French Quarter or Magazine Street.

The Claiborne Corridor Cultural Collaborative (C4) Mapping Project seeks to document culture makers in New Orleans by having individuals and businesses take a brief online survey mapping out a  wide variety of cultural activities , organizations, and businesses. Just think of it as a census for the creative class.

What qualifies as a “creative place-making” business? Food trucks, second line food vendors, recording studios, arts markets, art supply stores, libraries, music stores, to name a few.

The project is a part of the City of New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy and is being funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Our Town grant.  The purpose of the grant is to evaluate “creative place-making” in neighborhoods along Claiborne Avenue, spanning from Jefferson Parish to St. Bernard.
The C4 Mapping Project will focus on the Corridor’s local cultural assets, and will identify and engage with the City’s culture-makers, including formal organizations, traditional practitioners, and other independent cultural producers. The C4 Mapping Project will bring together many types of information for the first time to help the City deploy its resources to better support and enhance the places where we live, work, and practice.

From their website:

The C4 Mapping Project will identify cultural practices and organizations, performance spaces, krewes and social clubs, artist studios, farmer’s and art markets, restaurants, parade routes, live music venues, and many more cultural assets.

The C4 Mapping Project will also include locations of churches and local schools, special zoning districts, neighborhood boundaries, roads and highways, green spaces, incentive zones, public transportation routes, and additional helpful information along the Corridor.

The more people who fill out the survey, the more comprehensive and effective it will be. Individuals and businesses are encouraged to fill it out. The project will not map your specific home or private studio. However businesses that advertise will be mapped from publicly available resources.

To fill out the survey or obtain more information go to www.C4Nola.com, or e-mail c4nola@gmail.com with questions or concerns.

Christy Lorio, a native New Orleanian, writes on fashion at slowsouthernstyle.com and is also a freelance writer whose work has been featured online and in print magazines both locally and nationally.