Robert X. Fogarty, co-founder of Evacuteer.org, spent an afternoon in the French Quarter as a living statue for a fund-raising campaign.
When the levees broke after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, dramatic rooftop rescues and the miseries of the Superdome were searing reminders that thousands of residents cannot evacuate the city on their own because they don’t have the money, transportation, or a place to go.
The city has since developed an evacuation plan, which designates 17 locations throughout New Orleans where residents can board city-chartered buses. Right now the signs that mark the pickup spots are small and text-heavy. But a plucky volunteer group has proposed replacing them with large, colorful pieces of public art as a way to get the public’s attention.
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When the levees broke after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, dramatic rooftop rescues and the miseries of the Superdome were searing reminders that thousands of residents cannot evacuate the city on their own because they don’t have the money, transportation, or a place to go.
The city has since developed an evacuation plan, which designates 17 locations throughout New Orleans where residents can board city-chartered buses. Right now the signs that mark the pickup spots are small and text-heavy. But a plucky volunteer group has proposed replacing them with large, colorful pieces of public art as a way to get the public’s attention.
During times of need, the artworks would serve as a beacon, says Robert X. Fogarty, co-founder of Evacuteer.org, which recruits and trains more than 500 volunteers each hurricane season who pledge to help when city residents are ordered to leave. “Secondarily, it’s always going be out there as a community symbol of beauty and joy as well.”
Conversation Pieces
The idea for the public-art project grew out of Mr. Fogarty’s belief that spreading the word about disaster preparedness requires more than just traditional organizing methods.
As an AmeriCorps member serving in former Mayor Ray Nagin’s office, he would speak at neighborhood-association meetings and hand out brochures about the city’s evacuation plan. “After the meeting, they’re stuffed inside notebooks or left on chairs, never to be looked at again,” he says. “It’s always gnawed at me.”
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To make it very clear what landmark people should look for during a mandatory evacuation, the pieces of art placed at the 17 pickup locations will all have a similar design, with only slight variations to customize them for each neighborhood.
Artists and architects have submitted preliminary drawings, but comments from the community will be considered in the final decision. Whatever design is adopted, Mr. Fogarty hopes that the artwork will spark conversations—before a storm is bearing down on the city.
“If we can do that, we’re really onto something,” he says. “If you’re standing at a bus stop in February, and you look up and see this thing and someone says, ‘Well, that’s where you go if you have to evacuate.’”
The total cost of the project is estimated at $510,000. The Arts Council of New Orleans has committed $100,000 and will maintain the pieces once they’re installed.
The challenge of coming up with one design “that would speak to and cross all neighborhood boundaries” is exciting, says Mary Len Costa, the arts council’s interim director. What’s more, she says, if the project is successful, it has the potential to help other communities that face the threat of hurricanes
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“If it works here, maybe it’ll work in Florida, maybe it’ll work other places along the Gulf Coast,” she says.
Evacuteer’s other efforts at fund raising have had their ups and downs.
“I’ll be honest,” says Mr. Fogarty. “I don’t know how to raise public-art money. I’m learning as I go.”
Street Theater
After the all-volunteer organization received yet another foundation rejection letter last fall, one of Mr. Fogarty’s friends told him he’d probably make more money juggling on a street corner in the French Quarter.
That quip mushroomed into a campaign that combined street performance with the Internet.
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Flanked by eight friends handing out brochures, Mr. Fogarty spent a beautiful Saturday asking for donations while painted gold from head-to-toe, as a living-statue version of Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints quarterback. After several hours, the total take was $173.28.
Evacuteer then created a Web site that it called the Magic Bucket, posted a video about the art project, and challenged donors to match the organization’s busking proceeds by making a gift of $173.28. Mr. Fogarty donned the gold paint again—although this time he added a suit and tie—to kick off the online campaign at a social-media conference in the city called TribeCon.
In less than two months, the organization raised more than $32,000 online.
Mr. Fogarty remains committed to raising the additional $360,000 needed to complete the project as it’s currently imagined. But he says that if that’s not possible, Evacuteer can still improve on the current evacuation signs, even if it has to scale back its ambitions.
“If we never raise another dime, we have the commitments, we have the political support to actually put something in these places,” he says. “If at some point it doesn’t look to be something we can do, we’ll go with Plan B.”