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Kirsha Kaechele, the director of KK Projects: Life is Art Foundation (www.kkprojects.org), has worn many hats since moving to New Orleans on a whim in 2000. She has purchased and partially restored six abandoned buildings to be used as exhibition spaces; she has curated art installations and invited local and international artists to work on site-specific pieces; she has hosted dinners and parties that themselves became cultural installations; and she has worked passionately to infuse her adopted neighborhood of St. Roch with creativity. In short, Kaechele’s day-to-day demonstrates that she has a deep belief in the moniker of her company.

Kaechele’s ambitious installations and art programs—she’s currently showing the work of fourteen artists who were invited to create site-specific pieces—are particularly poignant in light of the New Orleans Biennale, on view and running through January 18, which is being billed as the largest contemporary art show in U.S. history. True to form, Kaechele organized a special event for the opening: the Ritual Feast, a seated dinner for 300 people at one long table that stretched along an abandoned block in St. Roch. The table was surrounded by the illuminated installations of the six KK Projects Houses and dinner consisted of eight artfully presented courses—life as art, indeed. Indagare spoke to Kaechele about her upcoming projects, about the community she is working in and how New Orleans and Katrina continue to haunt—and inspire—artists.

Read the Q&A with Kirsha Kaechele.