Tiana represents New Orleans
In the early days of development for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Carter reached out to the YAYA (Young Aspirations Young Artists) organization—a group that since 1988 has been on a mission to empower creative young people through visual arts education—to find New Orleans talent that could collaborate in making Tiana true to her roots. “At the beginning of our process, when we were what we call ideating what this adventure, what the story [of] the next chapter will be about, we wanted to see how somebody who was a native to New Orleans—how it resonated with them. And so we had the idea of let’s commission an artist, pitch our story to them, and have them give elements of that story back to us,” she said. Then, Carter introduced the artist whose work would become the heart of the attraction because they represented all the colors of New Orleans. “One particular artist, who had just this amazing sense of movement and rhythm—you know, our attraction is this flume ride and you’re moving and it’s thrilling. We had to go with Sharika Mahdi who’s just really amazing with her movement in her particular art.”
