Things came full circle in the New Orleans world of contemporary art Saturday night. 

Today, the New Orleans Film Fest kicks off, T-Lot opens their St. Claude gates for the 2nd Annual exhibition, and Honey Island Swamp Band strips down at Tipitina's. In more innocent times, Winnie-the-Pooh was published (1926), Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize (1964), Ronald Reagan proclaimed a War on Drugs (1982), Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890) and Ralph Lauren (1939) were born, and Bing Crosby (1977) and Leonard Bernstein (1990) died. But back to the 21st Century:

In Parallel Play, a Prospect 2 satellite exhibition opening tonight, growth and maturation are both themes and functions.

August 18th, when French astronomer Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen discovered helium (1868), when women’s suffrage was granted under the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (1920), when Nabokov’s Lolita was first published in the U.S., when Robert Redford (1936) and Patrick Swayze (1952) were born, and when Christopher ‘Into the Wild’ McCandless (1992) died. It’s also a day for:

July 20, when the first unit of the Women’s Army Corps began training during WWII (1942), when the Special Olympics was founded (1968), when Colombia declared independence from Spain (1810), when Sioux leader Sitting Bull surrendered to U.S. federal troops (1881), when Cormac McCarthy (1933), Natalie Wood (1933), and Vitamin C (1969) were born, when Bruce Lee died (1973) and National Friend’s Day in Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. Makes some new amigos today at these happenings:

The T-Lot Artist studio space hosts shows and ‘Flea Lots“ on its property at 1940 St. Claude Ave. But tomorrow night sees the first official film screening inside its large chain link gate. The flick at hand, Whistlin’ Dixie,  is the first large-scale documentary by Meredith Heil, who completed this project in between receiving a Masters in Social Documentation from UC Santa Cruz, and heading to Indiana to purse a PhD in Communication and Culture.

No it’s not second Saturday. It’s not even Saturday. Yet, there is art to be seen. Tonight, from 7-10 p.m., five artists come together for An American Memory, a group exhibition guest curated by Michael Martin at Chartres' Fair Folks and a Goat. The works and mediums vary, but, thematically, all of the works reflect on the splendor found in a city’s gradual decay - what corrodes, what remains, and the new visual aesthetic that takes hold of its surroundings as a result.

April 10th, the day that the Titanic first set sail (1912), the day Haley Joel Osment was born (1988), the day Queen Isabella II of Spain died (1904), and 2011- the last day for that FQFestin’. So pack it up pack it in, let us begin...

The visual arts continued their resurgence in 2010. Events such as Prospect 1.5, PhotoNOLA, and the suddenly hot monthly art walks have propelled those putting brush to canvas to a stature equal to those putting brushes to skin... feet to canvas. Right now, we are seeing incredible art coming out of this city; the works span all mediums, and convey themes still tinged by the Storm, but no longer pigeonholed by our dark days.

THE MARIGNY – At an up-and-coming downtown art haven known as T-Lot, creative work is buried in the ground, and free to move about the premises. Inspiration comes from houses that are falling down, Google and bone fragments found in the backyard. Dicks are also involved.