At the official gala opening for the Prospect 2 New Orleans Biennial on Friday at the ballroom of the newly reopened Hyatt Regency, curator and founder Dan Cameron announced that he was turning the creative reins of the three-year-old initiative over to Franklin Sirmans. The accomplished Sirmans, currently contemporary art curator at LACMA, will serve as artistic director of the planned Prospect 3 in 2013.

Cameron has been artistic director of the event since the beginning, having founded the franchise in 2008 with the idea of nurturing an international art fest for the United States akin to the Venice Biennale. However, after the critically acclaimed Prospect 1, the festival struggled with fundraising, and had to delay its second edition by a year (Prospect 1.5, a locally focused stopgap, took place instead last year). Prospect 2 remains much more modest than its predecessor.

According to those connected with Prospect, Cameron will continue to work on the event in a role that is still being defined.