This story was originally published by Verite News
The New Orleans Jazz Historical National Park and other national park sites in southern Louisiana are closed until further notice due to the federal government shutdown that began last week.
Most national park employees across the country were furloughed due to a lapse in federal appropriations caused by the shutdown. According to the National Park Service Contingency Plan, the agency expected to furlough more than 9,000 of its 14,500 employees in case of a shutdown.
That means the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve — which includes the Chalmette Battlefield, Chalmette National Cemetery and the Barataria Preserve — are now closed to visitors.
The jazz park serves to educate visitors on the genre’s New Orleans roots and showcase local jazz artists and musicians. Located in the French Quarter on Decatur Street, it doubles as a fully equipped music venue and is the only U.S. national park solely dedicated to music.
Geovane Santos, an Afro-Brazilian guitarist, was scheduled to play at the jazz park last Thursday, the day after the shutdown began. He said was booked to play there as part of a lineup of artists for Hispanic Heritage Month.
“They canceled with us for [Thursday] because of the government shutdown and there is the quote-unquote promise of rescheduling the gig, but it’s uncertain if it’s going to happen or not,” Santos said.
Santos has performed at the site on several occasions with his own band, as well as with the park’s Arrowhead Jazz Band, which is composed of the site’s park rangers.
Santos said the park operates differently from most music venues in New Orleans in that it offers an upfront guarantee to performers, as opposed to paying performers on the back end based on ticket sales or bar sales.
He wonders what will happen to the funds that were intended to pay him and other performers whose shows were canceled.
“Folks think that the government shutdown only affects people who have direct services with the federal government, but … a musician in New Orleans going up for their business to play a gig and the gig is not happening because the federally funded venue is shut down,” Santos said.
A spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, which supports the parks, pointed to calculations from the Parks Service showing that the jazz site and the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve helped drive more than $24 million in economic activity in their local communities last year.
“Visitors deserve to have a once-in-a-lifetime visit to New Orleans and its iconic national park sites, but until Congress works together to fund our parks and our government, that once-in-a-lifetime experience is on hold,” said Melissa Abdo, Sun Coast regional director for the organization, in a statement.
Abdo said the closures pose an environmental risk to the Barataria Preserve outside Marrero. Park rangers work to protect sensitive wetland ecosystems and migratory wildlife at the site.
Three other National Park Service sites in southern Louisiana were also closed — the Acadian Cultural Center, Prairie Acadian Cultural Center and Wetlands Acadian Culture Center.
Sean Clark is a New Orleans-based artist with art on display at the Wetlands Acadian Culture Center, which is located in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Clark’s collection, named “Some of US Call it Home,” features paintings and mixed media works exploring the “mundane diversity” of life in Louisiana and the South more broadly.
He sought out a national park, as opposed to a gallery or a museum, as a home for his artwork because he wanted the work to be accessible to all.
“Anytime I’m thinking about where I want my work to live, I want it to be in a place where people can come and absorb it without having to buy it,” Clark said.
The parks have free admission. But with federal funding stripped and employees furloughed, no one can come see Clark’s work.
Clark sees the shutdown as the latest barrier to artists’ work being disseminated — particularly the work of Black and brown artists, he said. He referenced other barriers like the widespread rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in recent years.
“I wouldn’t say [we’re] necessarily biting our nails, but we’re definitely in that state of awareness that these things can shift,” he said.
Senate Democrats and Republicans are in a standoff and have yet to agree on a proposal to fund the government going forward.