N 2° 58’ 10’ 8.904” W 73° 54' 2.123"/ “The River That Ran Away” Painting

Laurel Porcari was born and raised in Yonkers, NY, a smallish city just north of the Bronx. She moved to New York City to attend Pratt Institute, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and, later, a Master of Science in Architecture & Urban Design from Columbia University. After a long stint in Australia, she returned to the United States, making New Orleans her home and earning an MFA from Tulane’s Newcomb Art Department. Her full-time focus for over a decade has been on large-scale commissions. Busy creating both private and public pieces, her works are featured in the permanent collections of New York’s Montefiore Medical Center; Baylor University Medical Center and the University Hospital System in Texas; Xavier University in New Orleans; and Louisiana State University, to name a few. Laurel is dedicated to the revitalization and growth of New Orleans, and focuses on youth empowerment through the arts. She is on the Board of the YaYa Art Center (Young Aspirations/Young Artists), and is a founding board member of the non-profit New Orleans Creative Glass Institute. Laurel is dedicated to art and design education, instructing at Tulane University, The University of Texas, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Pilchuck Glass School. Laurel is the recipient of numerous visual arts grants from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation, RMIT, and the Goldman Sachs Foundation. She has been on numerous residencies including Pilchuck, Northlands Creative Glass, and Bullseye Glass. Laurel can be found most days in her studio on Magazine Street, though she loves to travel and welcomes projects well outside swamp geography.