September 4th is the inaugural session of Acadiana Center for the Arts’ (AcA) first Artist as Entrepreneur Intensive. This competitive, four day program is an amazing opportunity for selected artists to acquire the tools, thinking, and resources necessary to build successful careers not only as artists but as business professionals. With generous funding from LFT Fiber, and additional support from Lafayette Economic Development Authority (LEDA), we are able to bring in professional facilitators from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), an internationally renowned organization that has run countless such intensives across the country for over a decade.
This Artist as Entrepreneur program is the most recent piece in our larger push to create a true, informed arts economy in Lafayette and Acadiana. According to data revealed at our 2025 State of the Arts Symposium, Lafayette’s cultural economy accounts for over 9% of the GDP (over $2.6 billion in impact), and yet many of our artists and musicians admit to feeling underprepared when it comes to business acumen and knowledge. This intensive will allow our selected artists to take their work into their own hands and prove that the arts are not only inherently valuable, but a significant contributor to the economy of Acadiana in their own right.
This 35 member cohort was chosen from a long list of talented applicants, spanning a variety of ages, backgrounds, artistic mediums, and parishes. With the knowledge and experience gained through this program, we truly believe the selected artists will go on to be the next generation of artistic business leaders in Acadiana.
The 2025 Artist as Entrepreneur Intensive Cohort includes:
Gary Pilcher
Mya Budden
Maaliyah Papillion
Erin Bennett
Kelli Foret Richard
Erin Gray
Jessalyn Newton
Anna Teer
Michael Lerch
Kelly Russo
Chelsea “LouSea” Louvierre
Alex Lemoine
Lydia Young-Green
Christy Lush
Monique Morton Derouselle
Sarah Castille
Nelson Aguillard
Maleah Bocage
Erica Fox
Kelsey Billiot
Audrey Marie Broussard
Sam Wrobel
Jillian Godshall
Caroline Huval
Charliese West
Justin Robinson
Olivia Perillo
Ava Grace Broussard
Sarah Dailey
Trinity Dugar
Tiffany Luong
Marcelle Cornay Foret
Cathryn Hanks
Melissa Pendrey
Suzanne Wiltz
Congratulations to our 2025 Artist as Entrepreneur cohort!
