NEW ORLEANS— Studio BE, one of the city’s premiere art spaces, has been closed for entire pandemic, with the exception of the Juneteenth weekend, and now is set to reopen.
It’s reopening with an incredible new installation born out of COVID-safe youth workshops that sought to give them a voice in today’s social unrest.
Brandan “bmike” Odums of Studio BE said, “We thought about as a creative space, how can Studio BE provide some type of exercise to get them to think beyond the problem, to get them to think beyond what they’re against, but to brainstorm on what they’re for.”
The result is the first collaborative installation at the studio entitled Radical Freedom Dream.
According to Odums, “(This is) Based on a legacy that we’ve been a part of. It was a radical idea in the past that we all existing today. Our grandfathers and great grandparents and grandmothers, they had these radical dreams that we’re privileged to exist in now.”
From the radical dreams of our young people exists beauty with a message.
Odums explained some of the installation, “One of these kids came up with the idea. We challenged them and said, ‘What could you do to make the world a better place?’ And they said, ‘I’m going to make these empathy glasses,’ and the goal was if you put these glasses on you could immediately see the person in a clear human way. Behind me is upside down police car, and that came from a conversation with one of the kids that said, ‘What if police pulled up and there was a therapy aspect of it where you can sit down and talk about your problems?’ What I’m most excited about probably is this suite of arcades where we basically repurposed these arcades and created these different types of games to play with the idea of what is real and what isn’t. The pieces are surface level, and then they go as deep as you want to take