The Royal Touch After 45 years building floats for some of Carnival’s oldest parades, Royal Artists has finally captured the King.
n the boisterous world of Carnival parades, Royal Artists Inc. is perhaps the biggest player you’ve never heard of, but it hasn’t slowed them down one bit. This season, the 45-year-old firm realizes its highest-profile role yet: float builder for Rex, King of Carnival. On a gray afternoon in early January, Royal Artists owner Richard Valadie worked alongside his team in the Rex warehouse on Claiborne Avenue, cutting plywood for a float designed to carry Aurora, the Roman goddess of dawn, on Mardi Gras morning. Aurora herself, a 12-foot papier mâché sculpture painted in the fiery palette of a sunrise, stood watch nearby. The whine of a saw sliced through the otherwise quiet focus of the artists. Piles of hand-painted flowers and flames fanned out on the concrete floor waiting to decorate finished works. The scene is a familiar one for the team at Royal Artists, who have spent the past 44 Carnival seasons building floats for New Orleans parades. This worksite, however, was history in the making. Last year, the Rex Organization announced it would end its nearly 70-year partnership with Kern Studios, opting instead to work with the smaller and lesser-known Royal Artists to craft its century-old rolling tableau floats. The exact reason for the split remains unknown, but a statement from leaders with Rex and Kern said the decision to part ways was reached mutually. This year, Rex, King of Carnival, will be accompanied by 20 floats hand-crafted by Royal Artists. Valadie said Royal Artists founder Herbert Jahncke, who died in 2007, aspired to count among his clientele. “It was always his dream to get it,” said Valadie, a long-time Royal Artists manager who took the helm in 2011. “I know he’d be very proud of us.”
By Jennifer Larino photos by Cheryl Gerber