The Music Box started as a cluster of ramshackle houses doubling as musical instruments stationed in an empty lot in Bywater, where weekly shows would attract huge crowds and notable guest musicians. The Music Box popped up again in City Park last year as a "roving village," and this time guests Solange Knowles and members of Wilco showed up to make music with the playable houses.
Now the Music Box will have a permanent home in Bywater when the project's nonprofit organization, New Orleans Airlift, sets up headquarters at an old metal shop in the neighborhood "where Rampart Street abuts the Industrial Canal."
The space will be used as a worksite for Music Box construction and other Airlift projects, as well as host "regular educational programs, longer-range scheduling of visiting artists and musicians, and longer-term collaborations with other institutions."
Look out for performances at the space in the fall.
• 'The Music Box,' beyond-cool sound sculpture finds a permanent home [NOLA.com]
• A Symphony of Floorboards, Pipes and Stairs [New York Times]