Is It Worth It To Try And Build An Animation Industry In New Orleans?

Different entities have spent years on developing strategies to get New Orleans to be a successful city that doesn’t just rely on one industry. The major industries have been tourism, food and oil & gas. In an effort to attract more young professionals and better jobs, there has been expansion into healthcare, arts & entertainment, ed tech and more. While digital media has been highlighted by Prosperity NOLA and other plans, I’ve noticed that software development is the niche that is always getting pushed to the forefront of this category.
I’ve been doing animation presentations for several years and workshops for the past two years. Last year, I took it into overdrive and that resulted in going up to north Louisiana to do a Saturday workshop for the anime club at Louisiana Delta Community College, my first stint as an adjunct professor this Spring 2017 and getting to do a presentation and workshop at the NOLA Mini Maker Faire. After doing a two-day workshop with KID smART where they helped us craft better lesson plans, I had an epiphany moment during a discussion where I really questioned whether it would be worth it to try and make animation a big thing in New Orleans. Mostly, from thinking if it was even possible.

Animation and Video Game Companies Moving to Louisiana

• There are video game companies that have been either moving to Louisiana or putting additional locations here, but they’re not bringing tons of jobs, which makes sense because Louisiana is not prepared to fill these jobs if there were a lot of them. Mostly transplants would have to be shipped in to fill the jobs.
• Depending on the company, some are not even offering artistic positions
  

People From Louisiana Don’t Tend to Leave

• Everyone knows that if you’re going to try and be successful in animation, California is your go-to location. Canada, New York, Washington and some other states are also front runners.
• However, I’ve noticed that people from Louisiana tend to stay in Louisiana. Even the people who have moved away tend to come back eventually. So if I create all of these animators that don’t have jobs to fill, will I be doing them a disservice?
  

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