By Kevin Lee Associate Editor

So what changed? Well, everything and really nothing at all.

One year ago, we sat and watched as Hurricane Katrina ravaged our neck of the woods. Southern Mobile County caught the worst of the storm in these parts, but it was little compared to the devastation to our immediate west.

The maelstrom touched us all in various ways, even here at Lagniappe. Our managing editor’s parents lost their Mississippi coastal home beneath the waters of the storm surge. Someone I knew died in a New Orleans medical facility.

It touched Mobile’s art world as well. Musicians were stranded. Exhibits were imperiled. In the wake of the storm, a few of us realized there were new goals to be met.

The Mobile Arts Council gathered info on damages and set about lining up assistance for individuals and organizations on the coast.

The Mobile Symphony hired three musicians from the westward rubble. The Museum of Art rescued and transported the permanent collection of Biloxi’s Ohr-O’Keefe Museum into town for security. Space 301 hammered out a program for displaced artists.

Americans for the Arts joined a pair of local foundations to award thousands of dollars to 30 visual and performing artists from along the coast.

The Southern Arts Federation paid to rebuild the darkroom facilities at South Mobile County’s Alba Middle School. The National Endowment for the Arts provided funds to rejuvenate the school’s band, art and dance programs.

The Arts Council’s aim in securing all of this was to foster a sense of community among the region’s artists, to not only do what was humane but to foster future collaboration. They saw the opportunity to give the Mobile-area arts scene some clout, some “cred” as an “arts town.”

And the result? Well, let’s just say though some ground has been gained, we frequently recall adages about lasting change and time.

I knew two of the many musicians in town from New Orleans. They were on the lam from the storm, and I watched them perform weekly at a cozy local hideaway. They received aid from the Arts Council and were most appreciative but they were less impressed with the local passion for the arts. They understood the local hurdles and intents, but it wasn’t the same as the scene to which they were accustomed.

By the time spring rolled around, they were back in New Orleans, following the money. I saw video footage one of them shot on a trip to the Big Easy in the late fall. To imagine someone willingly going back to that Desolation Row is jarring.

Others found respite in the Azalea City reception. Arts Council personnel feel confident things are changing, improving for Mobile.

The recent Nall premiere seemed a step in that direction. The fervor built by the advance publicity was certainly promising, but then that seems to be one of Nall’s most prodigious gifts.

The evening affair received mixed reviews but not so much for the work at hand. The arts editor at the local daily newspaper expressed some unmet expectations and disappointment with attendees. He pointed out the confusing paradox of the Mother of the Mystics having problems with spectacle.

Oddly ironic, then, that the same newspaper trotted out its Mardi Gras character, the Masked Observer, to give his customarily sardonic report of life through a Carnival-tinted lens.

It seems a good bit of road remains before we reach the full-blown status of “arts town” like our recently departed civic sister to the southwest.

And while some of the subdued glee we’ve seen hereabouts over the absence of New Orleans can seem ghoulish at times, it’s rewarding to see at least one organization – the Arts Council – taking a more elevated path to the long term growth of Mobile. Cultural enrichment ensures the vitality of population centers.

Because the Gulf stirs still, hubris might yet rule.

To truly make the leap many locals feel draws closer by the day, this city must grow culturally to include the widest variety of participants possible. Everyone needs to feel connected to the arts scene, to be ready to indulge in anything at any time.

New things are indeed happening ‘round here. Events are burgeoning even as key figures depart the scene. That’s a good sign, believe it or not.

Whether that much can truly persist rather than swell and fade, as is so common, well, that’s only up to us.

Kevin Lee is Lagniappe associate editor. Contact him at klee@lagniappemobile.com.

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