American graffiti: The New Orleans Street Art & Mural Walk (photo: Carlos Fundora)
New Orleans Street Art & Mural Walk
Walking tours are always a great way to get your bearings in a new town, geographically and culturally. A well-designed and presented tour can put even new arrivals right in the thick of things, give you a primer on local history, drop in some local gossip and scandal, and basically set out the lay of the land. Bad ones are just lists of dates while someone points at a building. I’ve seen plenty of both kinds.
I’d never really taken a tour of my own neighborhood, though, and so I was intrigued by the New Orleans Street Art & Mural Walk. Yes, we’ve all seen the Banksy on St Claude Avenue and pointed it out to visiting friends and felt cool, and I’ve seen the great murals going up around the Upper Ninth Ward and the Marigny over the last few years, but I knew very little about them, and this tour seemed like a good chance to fix that.
Tour guide Carlos Fundora has been a professional photographer of street art here for years, and has created street art himself, often collaborating with other local artists. It quickly becomes clear that it’s this kind of experience and knowledge that gives the tour its authenticity. Carlos is in the know, but there’s no hipper-than-thou attitude, and he explains the context of the pieces we encounter with enthusiasm and an accessible, genuinely refreshing candor.
There’s a group of around ten of us, meeting at Saint Coffee and then meandering casually around the few blocks down towards the Quarter. I’m the only local, and the group is a mix of artists and people with a general interest. It’s obviously well-researched and carefully written, but there’s an immediate sense of spontaneity to it. It feels like you could take this tour a few times and get a different experience each time, with different pieces inspiring Carlos to talk about them in the moment. Carlos knows the people that made these pieces, why they did it and how, and it’s that joy in the work really shines through.
Given the ‘street level’ nature of this tour, it's reassuringly organic and produced from not just a real passion about street art, but also how it works and its importance within an urban environment. Some tours like this can feel voyeuristic, but Carlos makes you feel like you’re being shown behind the scenes. We look at everything from the large, colorful murals commissioned by various people to the art made on the covers of the water mains - a famous New Orleans feature - but here decorated with political messages and neon patterns. In New Orleans, it pays to look down as well as up.
There’s around two hours of walking in total, with a bathroom/refreshment break in the middle. The tour group skewed younger, my fellow tourees brandishing cameras for Instagram-worthy shots of the art and interested enough to ask lots of questions and talk about the street art in their own cities.
After a dozen or so stops, the tour culminates at the Banksy of the umbrella girl on Saint Claude. It is probably the most famous piece of street art in town, and even here Carlos brings some great trivia to the table about how it got here, its significance and what happened with the various attempts to remove it. It’s a fitting ending, and wraps up the tour with the main attraction.
I’ve lived around the neighborhood that the tour takes place in for about a decade now. I’ve walked past many of the larger murals before and admired them, but having their context explained and being educated on the backgrounds of the characters portrayed helped me appreciate them on a new level. We looked at tiny artworks painted on lampposts and murals that I had walked past many times before without seeing. It honestly connected me to my neighborhood in a new way, and now I walk around looking for new stencils and additions to the murals.
Anyone with an interest in art beyond galleries and museums will love this tour. It demystifies street art and provides meaning to the murals that you’ll see around the Marigny. It’s even-handed, incredibly well informed, and Carlos really brought everything to life within the light of various current events. You’re in the fresh air, carrying a cocktail and appreciating skilled and striking paintings with fresh eyes. It’s how tours should be done.
Paul Oswell
For more information and tickets, call Carlos on +1 (504) 444-4085
Walking tours are always a great way to get your bearings in a new town, geographically and culturally. A well-designed and presented tour can put even new arrivals right in the thick of things, give you a primer on local history, drop in some local gossip and scandal, and basically set out the lay of the land. Bad ones are just lists of dates while someone points at a building. I’ve seen plenty of both kinds.
I’d never really taken a tour of my own neighborhood, though, and so I was intrigued by the New Orleans Street Art & Mural Walk. Yes, we’ve all seen the Banksy on St Claude Avenue and pointed it out to visiting friends and felt cool, and I’ve seen the great murals going up around the Upper Ninth Ward and the Marigny over the last few years, but I knew very little about them, and this tour seemed like a good chance to fix that.
Tour guide Carlos Fundora has been a professional photographer of street art here for years, and has created street art himself, often collaborating with other local artists. It quickly becomes clear that it’s this kind of experience and knowledge that gives the tour its authenticity. Carlos is in the know, but there’s no hipper-than-thou attitude, and he explains the context of the pieces we encounter with enthusiasm and an accessible, genuinely refreshing candor.
There’s a group of around ten of us, meeting at Saint Coffee and then meandering casually around the few blocks down towards the Quarter. I’m the only local, and the group is a mix of artists and people with a general interest. It’s obviously well-researched and carefully written, but there’s an immediate sense of spontaneity to it. It feels like you could take this tour a few times and get a different experience each time, with different pieces inspiring Carlos to talk about them in the moment. Carlos knows the people that made these pieces, why they did it and how, and it’s that joy in the work really shines through.
Given the ‘street level’ nature of this tour, it's reassuringly organic and produced from not just a real passion about street art, but also how it works and its importance within an urban environment. Some tours like this can feel voyeuristic, but Carlos makes you feel like you’re being shown behind the scenes. We look at everything from the large, colorful murals commissioned by various people to the art made on the covers of the water mains - a famous New Orleans feature - but here decorated with political messages and neon patterns. In New Orleans, it pays to look down as well as up.
There’s around two hours of walking in total, with a bathroom/refreshment break in the middle. The tour group skewed younger, my fellow tourees brandishing cameras for Instagram-worthy shots of the art and interested enough to ask lots of questions and talk about the street art in their own cities.
After a dozen or so stops, the tour culminates at the Banksy of the umbrella girl on Saint Claude. It is probably the most famous piece of street art in town, and even here Carlos brings some great trivia to the table about how it got here, its significance and what happened with the various attempts to remove it. It’s a fitting ending, and wraps up the tour with the main attraction.
I’ve lived around the neighborhood that the tour takes place in for about a decade now. I’ve walked past many of the larger murals before and admired them, but having their context explained and being educated on the backgrounds of the characters portrayed helped me appreciate them on a new level. We looked at tiny artworks painted on lampposts and murals that I had walked past many times before without seeing. It honestly connected me to my neighborhood in a new way, and now I walk around looking for new stencils and additions to the murals.
Anyone with an interest in art beyond galleries and museums will love this tour. It demystifies street art and provides meaning to the murals that you’ll see around the Marigny. It’s even-handed, incredibly well informed, and Carlos really brought everything to life within the light of various current events. You’re in the fresh air, carrying a cocktail and appreciating skilled and striking paintings with fresh eyes. It’s how tours should be done.
Paul Oswell
For more information and tickets, call Carlos on +1 (504) 444-4085