Material Institute

Material Institute is a nonprofit arts center in New Orleans' 9th Ward that expands access to resources for a new generation of New Orleans artists. We are a learning environment where experimentation and collaborative spirit collide to foster community and cultivate freedom of expression in the fields of music, fashion, and gardening. Our Community is made up of artists, farmers, cultivators, and culture bearers.

These are our Organizational Strategies:

1. Provide cost-free, quality arts education and community programming
2. Provide resources - personnel, tools, space, guidance, mentorship
3. Bring together artists spanning multiple generations, disciplines, and backgrounds
4. Create spaces that inspire creativity, encourage collaboration, and develop community
5. Implement contemporary, adaptable, culturally relevant programming
6. Apply project-based learning
7. Encourage interdisciplinary experimentation
8. Establish environmentally sustainable practices in all aspects of programming
9. Collaborate and build programming with local culture bearers
10. Serve plant-based meals to participants, staff, and families
11. Create professional opportunities for past participants
12. Expand, expose, explode: take artists beyond New Orleans.