Culture is Infrastructure and People: A Conversation with Raelle Myrick-Hodges

"Send a text sharing your thoughts about the episode."In cities like New Orleans, culture isn’t a luxury—it’s infrastructure and people. Sustaining that infrastructure and retaining the people requires more than creativity. Culture demands leadership, financial discipline, and a willingness to confront hard truths about institutions, communities, and ourselves.In this episode, Raelle Myrick-Hodges, Executive Director of the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans (CACNO), engages in a candid and deeply personal conversation about the realities of leading a cultural institution. She shares her unconventional path from a self-taught artist navigating neurodiversity to founding Azuka Theatre and ultimately stepping into leadership at one of our most prominent arts institutions. Raelle offers a frank look at the pressures facing organizations like the CACNO, from financial constraints and staffing challenges to the lingering weight of institutional history and public perception.Raelle leads beyond the CACNO to explore broader questions: What do arts institutions owe their communities? Why are artists often undervalued as leaders? And how can cities like New Orleans better harness their cultural capital as both an economic engine and a source of civic identity?Throughout, Raelle challenges assumptions—about passion, leadership, and even what it means to be an artist—while emphasizing a central idea: artists are not simply entertainers; they are problem-solvers, builders, and essential contributors to how society functions.This conversation is about people, institutions, and a city that continues to define itself through creativity, risk, and reinvention.