Prairie Stories: Art and Ecological Restoration on Louisiana’s Prairies
This exhibition takes a look at a variety of stories which interview the work of artists, community groups, indigenous peoples and science led efforts to restore the ecological balance to the area know as the Cajun Prairie. Visitors will see the well know landscape paintings of Elemore Morgan Jr and photography from Lucius Fontenot’s Mémoire de la Boue (Memories of Mud) series. Visitors will see also collaborative projects, some of art and some of science. One such is an art installation between Rush Jagoe and Maaliyah Symoné. Maaliyah explains that, “through her artwork, she reimagines plants not just as subjects or props but as co-creators and storytellers.”
Along side the work of artists, this exhibition will showcase some of the work being done by scientists and naturalists who have taken to “rewilding” sites of the prairie. The Cajun Prairie Restoration Project in Eunice, Louisiana, Atelier de la Nature Aurore & Brandon Ballengée’s Eco-Campus in Cecilia, Louisiana and the Acadiana Native Plant Project based in Arnaudville, Louisiana. These organizations are spearheading local efforts to rebuild the biodiversity of prairie soil and to bring about positive change within the natural ecosystem of the coastal prairie.
As Dr. Malcolm Vidrine explains, “Prairie is the fastest and easiest of the ecosystems to reconstruct, if native plant ecotypes are available. Farmers and fishermen in Acadiana are facing a near-term economic collapse that can be partially evaded if farmers and lawn-owners rewild parts of their fields as an ‘investment’ in the local, long-term regional economy. In general, reinvigorating soils, clearing rivers, changing hydrology, increasing biodiversity have numerous positive impacts.”
According to Dr. Vidrine, the positive impacts of rewilding in this region are potentially breathtaking. Immediate impacts on both the global climate crisis and the global biodiversity crisis will be felt and grow exponentially. Generating prairie soils rapidly sequesters carbon and builds biodiversity deep into the soils, as prairie plants create a rhizosphere that reaches as many as 4.6 m. in depth.
As winter transitions to spring, join Acadiana Center for the Arts in a meditative exploration through Louisiana’s coastal prairie landscape.
Featured Artists: Ashlee Wilson, David Alpha, Elemore Morgan Jr. , Emee Morgan, Leah Graeff, Lucius Fontenot, Jillian Godshall, Maaliyah Symoné, Rush Jagoe
Featured Groups: Acadiana Native Plant Project, Atelier de la Nature, Atakapa-Ishak Nation of SWLA, Canneci Tinné Tribe of the Lipan Apache (N’de) Nation, The Cajun Prairie Restoration Project, LA Native Seed
