Imagine, if you will, an entire city displayed as a living museum, its seemingly ordinary buildings regarded as priceless lost treasures. With the opening of its new exhibition, “Raised to the Trade: Creole Building Arts of New Orleans,” the New Orleans Museum of Art has, in effect, done just that: transformed historic buildings and Creole cottages alike into living museum pieces. The exhibit runs through January 12, 2003.

The exhibition focuses on the building period between 1800 and today. NOMA’s intent is to redefine “fine art” vs. “crafts arts,” and what roles a museum can play in historic preservation in both affluent and non-affluent communities.

According to NOMA, the exhibit will bring the buildings and craft trades that created them into focus through the use of oral histories, symposiums, lectures, workshops, trade demonstrations, archival and period photographs, and genuine artifacts used by the craftsman who helped create the unique architecture of New Orleans.

Self-guided tours in key areas of the city, notably Carrollton, Tremé and the 7th Ward will call attention to the stone masonry, bricklaying, tinsmithing, blacksmithing, carpentry, ironwork, cabinetry and other craft trades used in the majority of the Creole cottages, shotgun houses and other unique New Orleans structures that we locals so often take for granted.

The exhibition is in conjunction with the University of New Orleans College of Urban and Public Affairs. Graduate students from the university collected the oral histories that give first-person accounts of the contributions of the blacks, Creoles and freedmen who literally built New Orleans.

NOMA hopes that “Raised to the Trade” will bring a newfound appreciation to the uniquely New Orleans structures it presents, and, at the same time, promote a resurgence in the craft trades necessary to build and - more importantly - to preserve these architectural treasures. Preservation is a key goal of the exhibition. To that end, teaching apprenticeships are planned, as well as theater arts programs designed to complement the exhibition.

Surveys conducted by NOMA show New Orleans architecture is one of the top three reasons visitors are drawn to the city. NOMA estimates that “Raised to the Trade” will generate an economic impact of roughly $18 million, drawing more than 75,000 visitors.

“Raised to the Trade: Creole Building Arts of New Orleans” promises to be one of NOMA’s most dynamic exhibitions. For more information, including exhibition and seminar schedules, contact NOMA at (504) 488-2631, or go to the “Special Exhibitions” section of the NOMA website at www.noma.org.

Copyright 2003, M&L Publishing, all rights reserved.