Richard and Vivian Cahn

Richard and Vivian Cahn: Supporting the Arts and

Celebrating New Orleans

Richard M. and Vivian Bart Cahn have been together over fifty years. During their marriage Richie and Vivian have collaborated in creating a beautiful home, supporting the arts in New Orleans, and working on projects to bring people together. They married in 1976, and their son David, who lives in Manhattan, was born in 1995.

They were introduced by our classmate Larry Rabin, who thought that his two friends "who liked to read a lot" just might get along. They got together one summer when Richie was directing a camp for underserved children in Colorado Springs and Vivian was taking a course in the American novel at the University of Colorado. In 1975 they sold their "meager possessions" and went backpacking through Mexico, Central, and South America for almost a year.

Richard, Vivian, and David in Pompeii in 2023.

At the ruins in Teotihuacan, Mexico, in 1975.

Richie owns and operates a family business called Dixie Mill that distributes highly sophisticated machine tools and fabrication equipment. Dixie Mill was started over a hundred years ago by his paternal grandfather, Michael E. Cahn, in 1917, and Richie has worked there for over 55 years. The continuity of the family business is evident even in the photos from the 1930s and today.

Richie attended Newman from the eighth through the twelfth grades, and what he values most from that experience are the lifelong friendships from his time there. Deciding that he should major in math due to his score on the math portion of the SAT, he started college at Georgia Tech, which was "very stern and lacking in women or fun." From there he transferred to Northwestern University in Illinois and "finally graduated" in 1972 after dropping out of school for eight months of travel.

Dixie Mill. Circa 1930s.

Dixie Mill today.

Vivian on her porch steps with their dog Lucy.

Vivian grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, until age twelve when her family moved to New Orleans. She graduated from Fortier High School and attended college at the University of Georgia for one year and then transferred to UNO. After graduating from UNO, she went back fifteen years later for a degree in Interior Design. She is still very active in her work as an interior designer and feels very fortunate to help create beautiful homes for her clients. She also serves as a role model and mentor to younger people, including a niece who changed her career from teaching History at Newman to Interior Design.

Both Richie and Vivian grew up in families with very courageous parents. Vivian’s father, Morris Bart, Sr., (1915-2011) served as a Captain in the 82nd Airborne Division during World War II and flew reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines. Born in Switzerland, her mother, Hertha Rosenblum Bart (1924-2025) was the first war bride to arrive in Tennessee. Vivian also considers herself very lucky to have had the in-laws that she did. Richie’s home in the 1960s happened to be one of the first meeting places of white and Black politicians in racially segregated New Orleans. His mother, June Blumenfeld Cahn (1923-2004), was an attorney who advocated for civil rights and did pro bono work for Legal Aid. Her efforts toward integration were dangerous, and at times she received death threats. At one point his parents found it necessary to send his older sister to boarding school in Switzerland in order to keep her safe.

Richie’s father, Jules Lazard Cahn (1916-1995), was among the first photographers to go into African-American communities to take pictures and videos of Second Line parades, jazz funerals, Mardi Gras Indian processions, and Krewe of Zulu festivities. He also photographed most of the important jazz musicians of New Orleans. His extensive work is now archived at the Historical New Orleans Collection.

Funeral 1960s. Photo by Jules Cahn.

Original Four Social Aid & Pleasure Club Parade 1992. Photo by Jules Cahn.

A major creative endeavor of Richie and Vivian has been the restoration and interior design of their spacious home. The house was built in the early 1890s in the Bayou St. John neighborhood of New Orleans near the Fair Grounds. Situated close to the site of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Richie and Vivian have opened their home annually for a Bloody Mary party to kick off Jazz Fest. The architectural style of their home is known as a raised center-hall in the Eastlake style. When Richie and Vivian first saw it, the house had been abandoned and the yard overgrown, but they envisioned its potential and set about restoring it.

[You can click on the front door photo for a link to a Houzz article describing their home and art work.]

Today their home is filled with art and sculpture, each piece with its own story. Just a few examples of the items displayed include the sculptures created by renowned Mexican artist Enrique Alférez (1901-1999), who was a friend of Richie’s parents as well as Richie and Vivian. A bust of Vivian resides in the double parlor across from a bust of Richie done by Alférez when Richie was seven.

Post-Katrina their home also served as a gathering spot for those who made their way back to the city. Weekly for a couple of months, Vivian and Richie cooked up a big meal, put out a well-stocked bar, and opened their home to everybody they knew. It served as a wonderful and meaningful respite for people during those surreal times following the devastation of New Orleans. This gathering came to be affectionately known as "The Cahn Bar & Lounge."

Busts of Vivian and Richie by Enrique Alférez.

Alférez created sculptures, benches, and bridges in City Park and throughout New Orleans, many carried out through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s. Inside the City Park Botanical Garden is a sculpture garden featuring his works. You can read about his life and work in a book entitled Enrique Alférez: Sculptor, by Katie Bowler Young.

You can see a video of the Helis Foundation Enrique Alférez Sculpture Garden by clicking on the photo.

Vivian, along with Richard, has been very active in supporting the arts in New Orleans, including her involvement on the board of Prospect New Orleans, the largest contemporary art exhibition in US history. The idea for Prospect arose out of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the desire of the creative community in New Orleans to bring greater awareness to the city's cultural and artistic heritage. Prospect.1 was held in the Lower Ninth Ward, and Vivian described it as a galvanizing exhibit that was successful in bringing the attention of the national and international art world to New Orleans.

Vivian served on the Prospect board from Prospect.2 to Prospect.6. Some of the Prospect.6 exhibits were held in the former Ford Motor Plant, situated next to the Mississippi River in Arabi. From 1923 to 1933 the plant received auto parts and assembled Model T and then Model A cars. An arts lover purchased the empty plant and undertook the huge job of cleaning and restoring it to house the exhibits.

I was lucky enough to tour the recent Prospect.6 exhibits at the Ford Motor Plant, and I was especially intrigued by the Send love inna barrel exhibit by artist Kelly-Ann Linda. A series of connecting cardboard shipping barrels references the barrels of goods that immigrants sent back to their children in Jamaica. The children were sometimes called "barrel children." The connected barrels create an echo chamber, symbolizing the echoes of communication in spite of the distance between parents and children.

Bob Dinkin peering into the Send love inna barrel exhibit.

Richie likes “to do creative things that other people aren’t doing.” For example, he conceptualizes bridges between groups of people and then finds concrete and practical ways to build these pathways. He described the program he has fostered for Jewish children from different groups within the New Orleans Jewish community to “start to know each other" and form friendships. Children from the Jewish Community Day School and the Slater Torah Academy spend time together in art and science projects, math and computers, and athletics. As Richie said, “It is joyful to see people get together.” Richie has been president or board member of various organizations including the Holocaust Committee, the Jewish Endowment Foundation, the Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association, Touro Synagogue, Limmud, LASPAC, and City Park. As Richie said, "Whoever thought I would end up teaching Sunday School? I certainly didn't!"

In addition to all of their serious work, Richie and Vivian were co-captains for 36 years of one of the seventeen Sub-Krewes of the infamous Krewe du Vieux. Here's a photo of Richie and Vivian reigning at the Krewe of Mama Roux.

Reigning as King & Queen of the Krewe of Mama Roux in 2024.

Richie and Vivian support the Jewish community in New Orleans, and both the Cahn and Bart families have received Tzedakah awards from the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana for their philanthropic contributions. The Cahn Family Foundation, in existence for four generations, helps fund organizations ranging from the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and Jewish Children Regional Services to a diverse group of organizations including City Park, Jazz Fest, the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, and the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic. The New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts is the city's college-preparatory school of the arts, and the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic provides free medical care to local musicians.

Richie and Vivian grew up with parents who set amazing examples of courage, whether flying behind enemy lines in World War II or working to integrate New Orleans during the 1960s. Individually and together, they work tirelessly to share the beauty of their home environment, to promote creativity in New Orleans, and to bring people together. Richie stated, "I like to create events that are interesting and beneficial and that otherwise would not happen." Their courage and joy help them to work for a world less dominated by fear and for a healthier environment where people are free to create. Richie and Vivian collaborate in Tikkun Olam, the healing of the world.