The management of the Music Box Village, one of the Crescent City’s creative gems, recently canceled the last two scheduled events of the entertainment venue's 2023 season and closed its website functions, leaving fans concerned about its fate.
Music Box Creative Director Leah Hennessy said that the unique concert and event venue “concluded our fall programming a little early to ensure necessary strategic planning.”
The outdoor space ordinarily closes during the coldest winter months and hottest summer months, presenting performances in the spring and fall. Hennessy said she’s optimistic the Music Box will be ready to resume programming in 2024, though “we don’t have a spring reopening date.”
The Music Box’s abrupt hibernation was caused by a few factors, Hennessy said. After the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, many small institutions like the Music Box have found it challenging to bring audiences back to pre-COVID levels, she said. Plus, it’s been harder to find granters to support projects.
The Music Box Village features art and sound installations and performances. It will hold open hours for the public this week.
As importantly, the Music Box is in the midst of a profound change in leadership.
In 2011, a group of artists led by Delaney Martin, Taylor Shepherd, Jay Pennington and celebrated New York-based street artist Swoon used the wreckage of a demolished Creole cottage on Piety Street to create a cluster of small houses that doubled as ingenious musical instruments. Thus, the Music Box was born.
Martin, Pennington, and Shepherd ran the project for more than a decade thereafter, before Pennington departed in 2022. Martin stayed on as artistic and executive director of New Orleans Airlift — the nonprofit organization that administers the Music Box — until February 2023, when she stepped away from the position. Taylor, who maintained the complex musical creations, left at the same time.
Airlift has yet to find a new director. Board Member Bryan Bailey said that the loss of the founding leadership has prompted the staff and board of Airlift to reimagine what the organization as a whole "looks like going forward.” Bailey said that the organization, which has three full-time employees, has sufficient money on hand to secure the appropriate new leader.
The P.4 Artist Party at the Music Box Village was held Saturday (Nov. 18) in the Bywater. (Dinah Rogers Photo)
In addition to a spring and fall concert schedule, the Music Box used to keep regular weekend hours when the public could explore the musical houses. But that program was suspended this fall.
When the Music Box Village first popped up it was so unique that it was difficult to describe. It was a small amphitheater built around what looked like a Hobbit village. Each musical house was created by a different artist, including Jayme Kalal, Ranjit Bhatnagar and Shepherd.
In one house, visitors could create percussive rhythms by pressing on the floorboards. Another produced gurgling sounds of vintage plumbing on command. In another, a steel spiral staircase activated whistles and chimes. It was a charming sight to behold and a comic cacophony to boot.
In 2015 the sculptural houses were moved temporarily to a site on a former golf course in City Park where guest musicians performed among them. Then, in 2016, the sculptural ensemble was relocated permanently to a former metal fabricating shop at 4557 N. Rampart St. near the Industrial Canal in the Bywater neighborhood.
In time, myriad musicians played the Music Box, including Norah Jones, Peaches, Wilco, Solange Knowles, Thurston Moore, the Preservation Hall Brass Band, Big Freedia, and Tank and the Bangas.
Thanks to attention from the local and national press, the Music Box Village became and remained a destination for adventuresome visitors to New Orleans.
Local rock maestro Quintron conducted the first concerts at the Music Box’s original location on Piety Street 12 years ago. Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s recent Halloween concert was the last Music Box show before the current hiatus.
Lost Bayou Ramblers frontman Louis Michoud’s Dec. 1 solo show at the Music Box has been canceled, as was a drag brunch.
This story was updated with more information on Monday evening.
Correction: Leah Hennessy's name was spelled incorrectly in the first version of this story.