November 29th, 2022 
Jennifer Graves St. Claude Arts Park is a new park in Arabi that was built on the lot next to the Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge. The park is a nice new outdoor venue and art market space for residents and visitors to enjoy. The park opening was celebrated with two free concerts sponsored by the Jazz Foundation of America. 
The land that the new park is located on is owned by Meraux Foundation which also owns the land the two blocks art district is located on. The arts district includes Zeitgeist Theatre, the artist’s studio and exhibition space St. Claude Arts and the consulting, design and framing business Art Conscious. The foundation is a private family foundation that supports many initiatives in St. Bernard Parish. These initiatives include projects in coastal restoration, economic development, arts and culture, and education.
“We want to leverage arts and culture as an economic driver. It’s organically growing into a nice destination,” says Chris Haines, who is a member of the Meraux Foundation Board.
The St. Claude Arts space is made up of 11 studios that are affordable for artists to use. They are currently filled with artists who are using a vast array of different mediums including painting, mixed media, photography, printmaking, woodworking, furniture refurbishing, and vintage clothing. One of the studios is Visual Arts which displays local exhibitions. Art will also be displayed on walls throughout the art district as the foundation has hired 10 muralists to complete this project.
As for the park, there are around 10,000 square feet of open space with lights and a covered area for bands and performances. The building facade located at 6609 St. Claude Ave houses the restrooms, and storage space and the black back wall will be used for outdoor movies. The park and Zeitgeist Theatre will hold the reception for PhotoNOLA which is New Orleans’ photography festival that runs December 7 – 10, 2022. During this festival, there will also be a photography-themed art market.
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