Woldenberg Riverfront Park — Art on the Levee

Woldenberg Riverfront Park is a 16-acre green space along the Mississippi River in New Orleans, home to notable public artworks including kinetic Holocaust panels and John T. Scott's Ocean Song. Opened in October 1989 after replacing industrial warehouses, the park was funded by a five-million-dollar gift from Malcolm Woldenberg's foundation. Its Holocaust Memorial, designed by Yaacov Agam in 2003, features nine 11-foot-tall kinetic aluminum panels.

New Orleans · from the walk “Moon Walk: New Orleans Riverfront Revealed” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Woldenberg Riverfront Park, 1 Canal St, New Orleans

Who designed the Holocaust Memorial located in Woldenberg Riverfront Park in New Orleans?

Take a look around you. Sixteen acres of green lawns, brick walkways, and open sky... all stretching between the Mississippi River and the French Quarter. But just a few decades ago? None of this existed. Where you're standing right now was a wall of industrial warehouses, shipping docks, and floodwalls... completely cutting the city off from its own river.......... The transformation began in the nineteen eighties. The land was cleared, and lightweight soil was laid over the old concrete warehouse foundations to create this park. It first opened to the public in October nineteen eighty nine, just in time to reclaim the riverfront for the people of New Orleans.......... The park is named for Malcolm Woldenberg, a Canadian-born businessman who came to New Orleans in nineteen forty one. He and his partner Stephen Goldring founded Magnolia Liquor Company, which eventually became connected to the legendary Sazerac Company... yes, the one behind New Orleans' most famous cocktail. Woldenberg's foundation gave five million dollars to the Audubon Institute to make this park a reality. There's a bronze statue of him here in the park... a quiet man holding the hand of a child.......... Now, let me draw your attention to the art. That shimmering stainless steel sculpture nearby is called Ocean Song, created in nineteen ninety by New Orleans native John T. Scott... a MacArthur Genius Award winner who grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward. See those rings at the top? Scott said they represent the circle dances performed by enslaved people at Congo Square... sacred rituals where forming a circle created holy ground. It's his way of encoding the African roots of New Orleans music right into the metal.......... But the most powerful work here waits further along the path. The Holocaust Memorial, dedicated in two thousand three... nine painted aluminum panels, about eleven feet tall, created by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam. Here is what makes it extraordinary. Agam is one of the world's pioneers of kinetic art... the son of an Orthodox rabbi, raised with the Jewish commandment against graven images. So he found a way to make art that Never stands still. Walk slowly around the memorial. From one angle, you see a yellow Star of David on black... the symbol of persecution. Take a few steps, and that image dissolves into total darkness. Keep moving... six colored boxes appear, one for each million lives lost. Then chaos. Destruction. And finally... a double rainbow emerges, a universal call for unity.......... The memorial exists because of Rabbi Edward P. Cohn, who visited the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston in nineteen ninety seven and felt New Orleans needed its own. This was at a time when American Nazi David Duke was gaining prominence in Louisiana politics! A local doctor then suggested his friend Agam for the design, and from the beginning, the artist insisted the memorial should acknowledge the victims... not the murderers.......... About a hundred and fifty Holocaust survivors settled in New Orleans after nineteen forty eight. They called themselves the New Americans... standing in as aunts and uncles for each other's children, building new lives beside this very river.