About ten days ago — May 15 to be exact — Prospect.1 New Orleans swung into public New York view in a way that hadn’t happened yet. Four of the artists – Janine Antoni, Jacqueline Humphries, Wangechi Mutu, and Nari Ward – joined me for a panel discussion at Cooper Union’s Great Hall, and we had an audience of about two hundred people listen intently as each presenter went into detail about what he or she is doing in New Orleans, and why.

The panel was a great opportunity to make the point that Prospect.1 is a primarily humanitarian endeavor, but one that just happens to have incredibly high artistic standards. There were a lot of artists present in the audience, which I felt was definitely a good sign. An even better sign was how passionately the four artists on the panel spoke about their individual projects.

The questions afterward were not complacent or cynical, an indication that for many in the New York art world, Prospect.1 might just seem too good to be true. To those whose spirits have been hardened in the trenches of Chelsea, Soho and the Lower East Side during the hyper-accelerated art boom of the past few years, there is an understandable need to keep turning Prospect.1 over and over, relentlessly examining it from every possible vantage point until its fatal flaw is uncovered. One questioner asked us if we were aware of our responsibilities, while another thought that having a free-admission policy was letting out-of-town visitors off the hook too easily.

In all, this was the kind of public forum that I wish we could see more of. I get the impression that Prospect.1 New Orleans seems like a kind of novelty for many people, while for even more it is still under the radar. The more we have the chance to talk about what this project means to those of us who are involved in it, the greater the likelihood that we will bring even more people into the discussion.