New & Now: The Nous Foundation
July 2025Oh là là! Scott Tilton and Rudy Bazenet’s chic boutique museum is “bringing French back to the French Quarter.”
– by Doug Brantley
This column is underwritten in part by Karen Hinton & Howard Glaser
Between its Spanish-tile street markers, Chinese souvenir-shop tchotchkes, and Bourbon Street Big Ass Beers, it can be hard to find the French Quarter’s French connection.
Royal Street residents Scott Tilton and Rudy Bazenet are out to rectify that with their New Orleans Foundation for Francophone Cultures—aka, the Nous Foundation.
French for “we”/“us,” Nous is now in the final phase of its 602 Toulouse Street build-out. When complete in late September/early October, the modern-minded space will not only serve as a “boutique museum” promoting Louisiana’s French, Creole, and heritage cultures, but a contemporary community hub as well.
Inside the new Nous headquarters at 602 Toulouse Street in the heart of the French Quarter, photo by Shawn FInk
Fashioned after similar cultural centers in Paris, where the two met in 2016 (Tilton, who was raised in New Orleans, was studying international relations and French native Bazenet was working for the French Foreign Service), the broader concept of the multifaceted organization is simply to bring people – and communities – together.
“We want people to be able to come together in one space where they can experience French and Creole,” says Bazenet.
“We don’t want to tell people what French and Creole mean in Louisiana directly. We want them to have access to information and then interact with that information. It’s an invitation to learn.”
It’s a far cry from a century ago, when French was banned from Louisiana classrooms, leading to French and Creole communities becoming marginalized statewide, with many disappearing altogether by the 1960s.
While institutions such the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) have long focused on preserving the state’s French language and history, Nous seeks to propel and promote that once-threatened heritage to a whole new generation – in a whole new way.
Tilton points to outside documentarians, often brought in to chronicle Louisiana’s French-speaking culture, who focus on what was rather than what is, propagating outdated stereotypes and rendering it as folklore.
“They’ll come do a documentary, and everybody is 90-something years old,” he says. “We’re not here to insult the elders in the community, but that’s just one narrative. There are also young people making music and doing all sorts of stuff.
“The idea behind contemporary cultural creation is to start defining now what the canon will look like down the road.”
The Nous concept began germinating just weeks after the couple first met, when Tilton attended a conference on the l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). The second-largest international organization after the United Nations, OIF brings together more than 90 French-speaking countries and regions to promote the language and strengthen economic ties.
Noting that, in addition to Canada, OIF also recognized New Brunswick and Quebec as separate members, Tilton and Bazenet were curious if the same could be done with the United States and Louisiana.
Undeterred by naysayers who suggested such would never be considered, the duo set off on a two-year, thousand-email process between the State Department, CODOFIL, and Senator Bill Cassidy’s office that culminated with Louisiana joining the Francophonie in 2018.
“Louisiana heritage cultures were always talked about from a position of decline,” notes Bazenet. “Our idea was to flip the script and change the narrative.
“Our approach through Nous has been the same: Let’s question what we keep being told is impossible. Let’s question the divisions within our communities. And let’s come together and start promoting our cultures with a common cause.”
The foundation launched in Paris in early 2020, with plans to transfer to New Orleans that summer. But pandemic travel bans put the move on hold until the two were eventually able to maneuver their way to the U.S. by way of Switzerland and Dubai.
“Kind of like the von Trapp family,” jokes Tilton. “It was an adventure. My mom always had this line I love: Do not underestimate the extent of my resolve in this matter.”
Landing here in February 2021, Tilton and Bazenet quickly found their footing and began making fresh imprints on the French Quarter cultural scene.
“Our stroke of luck,” recalls Tilton, “was meeting Annie Irvin and the board of the BK Historic House and Gardens, who brought us in and incubated us for a year and a half.”
Working out of the BK House, the Nous Foundation began producing short films, hosting screenings, offering French language lessons, and mounting exhibitions, including “Haiti-Louisiana: Tides of Freedom,” which would go on to be mounted at the United Nations.
At the Historic BK House during the opening of the exhibit “Haiti-Louisiana: Tides of Freedom,”
At the “Haiti-Louisiana: Tides of Freedom” exhibit opening, photo courtesy Nous Foundation
“As their ‘landlord’ and program partner, we got to see firsthand how hard Scott and Rudy have worked to share their mission of preserving and celebrating Francophone culture in and around New Orleans,” says BK House executive director Irvin, who also sits on the Nous board of directors.
“Their presence in the French Quarter as a cultural institution and as residents helps ensure this historic neighborhood remains a living, breathing cultural crossroads, not just a backdrop.”
The Nous Foundation’s most recent project, “Musique(s)!”, spotlights 28 current-day Louisiana artists—including Grammy winners Leyla McCalla and Louis Michot—performing in both French and Creole.
The 12-track album and accompanying book (in both French and English), are archived among the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, where McCalla and Michot wowed a sold-out audience in March.
Ironically, it was the same day President Trump signed an executive order designating English the official language of the U.S.
At the concert’s end, Tilton addressed the audience in French. “While English may now be the official language of the United States,” he declared, “in Louisiana, we will always have French!”
The crowd roared.
“Musique(s)!” will also take a UN bow during September’s General Assembly, with Sweet Crude members Sam Craft and Alexis Marceaux (who are likewise featured on the album) performing for heads of state at the Francophonie’s annual “Soirée en Français.”
Indicative of Nous’ bigger mission, the “Musique(s)!” project also incorporated a short film documenting its making and a tandem exhibition.
“We wanted to do something a little different and have an approach that was more based on people,” says Bazenet, “people who actually create something out of French, and not just promote French for the sake of promoting French.”
To that end, the foundation’s new Toulouse Street digs, carved out of a former retail store counted among the Historic New Orleans Collection’s (HNOC) many Quarter properties, offers a variety of avenues for exploration by those fluent in French and inquisitive non-speakers alike.
In addition to biannual exhibits, with accompanying themed publications and recordings, the space will house a glassed-in studio, through which visitors can view the Nous team at work on upcoming projects, actively “creating something for the culture.”
An information center, with curated bilingual brochures on all things French in New Orleans and other venues where visitors can delve further into the city’s culture, will also be featured, along with Louisiana’s sole French bookstore—one of only three in the nation.
“Scott and Rudy impressed me with their concept to bring to the French Quarter something it needs: a dedicated, cultural center focused on celebrating Louisiana’s French and Creole culture,” says HNOC director of institutional development, Heather Hodges.
“It wholly complements our work to promote the public's understanding of the broader history of the region. We see great potential in cooperating with them to turn those stretches of Royal and Toulouse into a magnetic, cultural heritage corridor and destination for curious visitors from around the world.”
Scott Tilton, Rudy Bazenet and HNOC President and CEO Daniel Hammer at the opening celebration for the 602 Toulouse Street location., photo by Shawn Fink for FQJ
A large crowd gathered at the Historic New Orleans Collection to celebrate the opening of the new Nous Foundation location at 602 Toulouse Street. Photo courtesy Nous Foundation
Indeed. While the foundation’s tagline may be “Bringing French back to the French Quarter,” Nous is also designed to bring the French Quarter to a global audience.
“We view the organization as an ambassador for New Orleans and Louisiana,” says Tilton. “We don’t want Nous to seem like a French club. It’s really about Louisiana culture, and we’re using French as a point of entry into it.
“The more cultural offerings you have in the French Quarter, the more it draws locals, as well as visitors, and makes it more of a living neighborhood.”
