Together, the Acadiana Center for the Arts and Lafayette Economic Development Authority offer ArtSpark, an Individual Artist Funding Program.

The purpose of ArtSpark is to directly support artists in Acadiana, especially those with otherwise limited opportunities, to expand their bodies of work as a professional and offer outreach to the community.

These awards offer assistance to emerging, mid-career, and mature artists for specific, short-term projects.

Applications due February 24, 2023

Please direct any inquiries to: Anna@AcadianaCenterForTheArts.org

Important Dates:

Funding Cycle: April 1, 2023 to December 1, 2023

Applications Open: Monday, January 9th, 2023

Award Information Session: Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 5:30pm. This session will be hybrid. Register here.

Application Work Sessions: January and February 2023 (see schedule below)

Draft Review Deadline: February 10, 2023 via email to Anna or Gwen

Application Deadline: Friday, February 24, 2023, submitted via the online form by 5:00pm. You may submit only one (1) application.

Notification Date: Week of March 27, 2023

Application Assistance:

It is strongly encouraged that prospective applicants contact the Community Development Department to discuss project ideas prior to submitting an application.

To receive assistance prior to the application deadline please call (337) 233-7060,

or contact Anna Kojevnikov at Anna@AcadianaCenterfortheArts.org

or Gwen Richard at Gwen@AcadianaCenterfortheArts.org

 

Draft Review Service:

Submitting a draft only:

At the bottom of the online form, you may select save and continue to save as a draft.

This will provide you with a link you may use to return to your form. You may also have this link emailed to your email address.

If you would like assistance with your draft application, email this link to either of the email addresses above.

Artist Round Up & Application Group Work Sessions

JOIN US! We have carved out time and space for you to work independently on your application with the advantage of having a member from our grant’s administration team, as well as other previously successful applicants, present to advise you, should you have any questions while working on your draft.

You will be amongst other potential applicants doing the same in a pleasant and supportive work atmosphere!

BYO laptops and writing utensils.

Lafayette

Acadiana Center for the Arts Café, 101 West Vermilion Street

  • Wednesday, January 18, 2023, 3-6pm
  • Thursday January 26, 2023, 3-6pm
  • Tuesday January 31, 2023, 3-6pm
  • Friday February 10, 2023, 9am-12pm

Around Acadiana

 

  • New Iberia | Thursday, January 19, 2023, 3 – 5pm @ A&E Gallery, 335 West St Peter Street
  • Franklin | Tuesday, January 24, 2023, 3 – 5pm @ Lamp Lighter Coffeehouse & Bistro, 731 Main
    Street
  • Opelousas | Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 3 – 5pm @ The Whirlybird (email Anna@AcadianaCenterfortheArts.org for address)
  • Crowley | Thursday, February 2, 2023, 3 – 5pm @ Crowley Art Association, 411 N Parkerson Ave
  • Arnaudville | Thursday, February 9, 2 – 4pm @ NUNU Collective, 1510 Bayou Courtableau Hwy

Applications must be submitted online by 5:00pm on the deadline date,
Friday, February 24, 2023

ArtSpark Application 2023

2022 ArtSpark Grant Recipients:

Kelli Jones

A new e-zine series, The Coop, is a monthly short-format digital magazine comprised of highly-curated content for Louisiana music fans, locals, and tourists alike. Featuring videos, interviews, musical content, recipes, historical profiles, French featurettes, and other unique content culled from local musicians, chefs, storytellers, artists, and other purveyors of culture from Acadiana.

Jillian Godshall

HOME OF EVANGELINE blends animation and documentary to craft an original retelling of one of Louisiana’s most revered folktales. As the story goes, a young woman named Evangeline wandered from Canada to Louisiana after being separated from her new husband Gabriel during the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755. Since then, the story has been told and retold so often that it has contributed much to the ethos and identity of South Louisiana. However, in its continual retelling, several versions of the Evangeline story emerged, each full of contrasting details about which there is wide debate.

Marla Kristicevich

Meander Mindset: Teche will explore & investigate the landscape of the Bayou Teche starting at the Teche in St Landry parish and meandering through to the end in St Mary Parish traveling in a small skiff, the Lady Lucinda, with photographer Kristie Cornell who will document the artists eco-installations & the landscape through photography.

Philip Gould

A photography series of aerial views taken with a drone and from charter aircraft which offer a heightened sense of place for Lafayette, Acadiana, and Louisiana. This will showcase Louisiana’s evocative landscapes and landmarks and portray the difficult challenges we face with coastal erosion and ongoing sea level rise.

Suzanne E. Wiltz

A poetry performance at the Teche Theater in Franklin centered around real-life ancestor Zebulon (who according to family legend was sold away from the family during slavery times and never heard from again). The proposed poetry cycle will explore and imagine Zebulon’s reactions to the 19 extant historical markers and war memorials in Franklin – none of which honor African-Americans.

Kelli Foret Richard

Drawn to Grow, a project rooted in Food Sovereignty, Decentralization and Regenerative Agriculture Practices and aims to engage the community with a call to action. Some scientists believe, if we do not change our conventional agricultural ways, our planet has about 57 harvest years left until we reach full desertification, which is the process by which land becomes desert as a result of deforestation or inappropriate agriculture. 57 drawings of foods, plants, etc. that can be easily grown at home in our region will be created. Each drawing will offer a small nugget of awareness about these important topics.

Paul Schexnayder

Kathleen Babineaux Blanco-A Woman of FIRSTS, is a narrative-bio children’s book that follows her journey from the cane fields of Coteau in Iberia parish to the Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge.

Michelle Colón

Music video for “Llorando En La Disco”, the lead single of a new five-song original EP titled ‘Camellia’. The music video is set in a cowboy-themed bar, and shows an outsider looking for a place to belong and someone to be.

Carey Hamburg

The art installation would feature a 25 foot diameter metal-frame dome, covered to represent a giant drop of water. Inside the dome will be large scale sculptures of the microscopic animals and plants that could “live” inside. Visitors to the dome could experience an imaginative shrinking journey to microscopic size and then explore life within a water-drop!