ArtSpark

ESTABLISHED ARTIST

Christine is launching a podcast that highlights Acadiana’s musicians, artists, and cultural advocates who are living purposeful and creative lives. The first series, Coming Back Home, will feature five in-depth interviews with individuals who moved away from the region but ultimately returned to contribute to their communities through their artistic and cultural work.

ESTABLISHED ARTIST

Michelle is directing a short film titled BUTTERFLYGHT, which follows the lifespan of a butterfly in its natural environment: what its life is like when given the things it needs and what its life is like when it is in danger. The film is an allegory for the history of Michelle’s own family. 

Her ancestor was the first slave in the state to sue for her freedom and win. She then sued for the freedom of her children, won that case as well, and lived with her children on the land that her descendants still inhabit to this day: the same land where BUTTERFLYGHT will be filmed. 

EMERGING ARTIST

“Here From The Garden” will be a seven-track traditional folk concept album inspired by the flora and fauna of Louisiana containing themes of growth, perseverance, and healing. It will comprise all original songs written by Audrey Broussard herself and recorded in a local recording studio with local musicians, as well as on site at Lake Martin so as to capture the natural sounds of the setting and add to the ambiance of the album. The album will be released for streaming, and a public performance will take place to celebrate the release of the album.

MID-CAREER ARTIST

Quoi t’après faire, Hibou Hébert? (Whatcha doin’, Owl Hébert?) is a Louisiana French children’s book intended for our youngest readers. It’s designed as a durable board book with phrases that adults often say to children (“Whatcha doin’?” – “Gently!” – “Go to sleep” etc.) and illustrated with animals familiar to Louisianians. 

It features a number of common Louisiana names and uses rhyme, assonance and alliteration to facilitate reading aloud for French learners, whether they are second language learners or Louisianians who are learning to read and write in their native French. Parents who read this book to their children at night can put these phrases to use in their home immediately, as they are phrases centered around everyday life.

MID-CAREER ARTIST

Kylie’s project is a bilingual (English and Cajun French) children’s book that introduces young readers to Louisiana’s French and folklore through a story of a Rougarou who seeks to have a “tit goût” after plotting to catch a local “cochon” found sleeping on his front porch. Designed to preserve and promote Cajun French, the book uses engaging storytelling with elements of humor and surprise, while following English and French rhyme schemes. 

Vibrant illustrations set in Vermilion Parish are sure to connect local children to their cultural identity. By incorporating both languages, it encourages bilingual literacy while keeping Louisiana’s linguistic traditions alive. The book will be a medium-sized board book, making it durable and accessible for young readers.

EMERGING ARTIST

Drake’s project is a dance work centered around the coming together of self isolated working communities from around the state of Louisiana. He will draw inspiration from the diverse working areas that are unique to our state’s geography (lumber workers, crop farmers, fishermen, oilfield workers, etc.) to generate movement vocabulary. 

This project will start with collecting research from these communities around the state and local regions by visiting small family owned grass root operations. He will also capture video of these individuals within their everyday settings to later analyze their movement patterns.

MID-CAREER ARTIST

Marie’s project is a large-scale mural titled “What the Land Remembers”, to be painted on the side of a restored historic home at 212 E. Cypress St. in downtown Lafayette. This two-story Creole-style property holds profound local and cultural significance. 

The goal of the mural is to honor the emotional truth of what the land has witnessed – and to give voice to the histories so often left in silence. The work will incorporate natural forms – Cypress trees, roots, stars, bayou water, musician silhouettes – intertwined with abstract figures inspired by real stories from the community. 

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.

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.

MATURE ARTIST

Circa 1994, Breaux Bridge High Cheerleaders post banners on a wall in downtown Breaux Bridge, LA, announcing Football glory with whimsically illustrated banners of battling mascots.

The issue of managing the ‘birthday wall’, includes challenges such as cleaning older signs, removing tape residue, and establishing organization. Addressing these concerns through the beautification of the space is imperative.

The solution involves creating a 1500-square-foot interactive mural showcasing the community’s collaborative evolution in message-sharing.

Drawing inspiration from three decades of connecting with the community through this beloved wall, the mural design represents the next phase in its evolution, incorporating elements of spoken and written languages for an inclusive representation of the community.

EMERGING ARTIST

Martha’s project will be the creation of ten surrealist collages showing threats to the Louisiana environment and its future.

Each collage will be accompanied by a title card with a brief explanation of the threat and a QR code leading to potential solutions.

These collages will be visually striking and create interest around climate change and preserving the environment.

MID CAREER ARTIST

Anne is creating a site-specific work for this year’s Art and Nature Halloween Festival that combines metal sculpture and native plants that responds to the needs of bees. Working with UL Biology graduate student Kimberly Hamm, the artist has identified a selection of native flowers and the bees that rely on them. Hamm’s work entails creating garden sites which attract pollinators.

This installation is a circle with a 10 feet diameter, cultivated with plants chosen for their importance to specific bee populations.  Planting intentionally, the composition will create a seasonal ebb and flow, creating an annual “clock,” although many of these plants will flower throughout the summer months.

MID CAREER ARTIST

Milton will be producing the Creole Culture Project’s second exhibition featuring impactful black and white fine art photographs of 20 distinguished Honorees from Louisiana’s Acadiana’s 8-Parish Region.

Additionally, the exhibit includes five vibrant fine art portraits in color capturing the essence of Black Masking Indians of Louisiana in regalia.

This visual celebration is immortalized in a 12X16 Coffee Table Book.

MATURE ARTIST

Denise will be producing a children’s musical based on her picture book, “A Tip Tap Tale”.

The ArtSpark grant will be used to write a theatrical adaptation of the book that includes songs and lyrics, working with a musician to compose music and work with Wonderland Performing Arts to host a FREE 4-day workshop for 15 children ages 8-12, where they will bring “A Tip Tap Tale” from page to stage.

The workshop will culminate in a thirty-minute musical performance, FREE to the public.

MID CAREER ARTIST

Abigail will use funding for the post-production of a 15-min experimental short film Until the Real Thing Comes Along…  which includes working with a local editor, sound designer and colorist to complete and screen in the community.

This short was devised as a narrative-clown piece which explores “love” in its many forms by addressing a concept gleaned from the artist’s buffon studies in French physical theater: “things coming together and things coming apart”.

EMERGING ARTIST

Nhi will create three large needle felt sculptures to be displayed in an exhibit.

The artist will have an immersive gallery experience that invites visitors to engage not only visually but also through touch.

By encouraging tactile exploration, the exhibit would foster a deeper connection between the audience and the artwork.

MATURE ARTIST

Bryant will create a series of contemporary black art portraits of influential leaders and pioneers in the Black culture.

These new paintings will have different color pallets and more monotone backgrounds, which is a contrast from his current body of work.

Bryant will stretch his skills and growth with painting and collaging faces/figures.

MATURE ARTIST

This project will bring to life a 5-6 minute animated film titled “Memories of the Little Pond.” Through digital animation, it serves as a poignant reflection on the pain and sorrow endured by those who lost family members and homes during the Korean War.

The narrative unfolds through the perspective of a little girl who not only loses her close friend but also her childlike imagination in the aftermath of the war. The metaphorical significance of the little pond extends to encompass the village, homes, and the essence of happiness for its inhabitants.

Louis Michot will be producing a music video for the single “Boscoyo Flo” from his new album, ‘Rêve du Troubadour’. ‘Boscoyo Flo’ is about his path as an artist, bringing sustainability and environmental awareness through his music. Adjoining his push for sustainability is his passion for Louisiana French, bringing obscure phrases and words forward into his art, symbolized in this song by a sample of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. He used this rare bird as a symbol for the current resurgence of Louisiana French; some think it’s gone, but if you look deep enough you can find it still alive in the day to day life of some Louisianians.

ESTABLISHED ARTIST

Traitement is a three-part documentary series about healing the collective unconscious by having dialogues with an anthropologist, a folk medicine practitioner, and a French modern language specialist hosted by the infamous traiteur and Acadiana culture bearer, Becca Begnaud. This project serves as a proof of concept for bi-monthly content distribution, drawing upon Begnaud’s life experience, French language, international healing practices, and cultural anthropology. Mathé Allain, Debbie Clifton, and Ray Brassieur will be the first featured experts interviewed by Begnaud.

UNTITLED NATURE PROJECT is an audio storytelling series where each episode focuses on one person’s experience to tell a bigger story. The first season will explore the relationship between humans and the natural world in and around Acadiana. Some stories include:

How one man has restored a planned development site into its natural form; The Wax Lake Delta which is one of the only places where land is being created not lost; A local farm using native plants in their regenerative agriculture methods; Native Tribes working to restore to restore the old cane breaks that once existed on river banks; And how one town is looking to stop local development to combat flooding.

Dustin’s project is an eight song conceptual folk album highlighting the story of his ancestors’ exile from Nova Scotia using non-traditional bi-lingual songs written about the sights, struggles, and adventures they experienced offering a soundtrack to their journey. The record will correlate to a river touring release by boat, in honor of the 80 day voyage taken by them to arrive in Louisiana.

Lex will be using live models from the local LGBT+ community and pairing them with native Louisiana wildflowers and flora to showcase the importance of representing this subculture of the Acadian population in a time where it is actively being repressed. The goal of this project is to bring awareness to the beauty and perseverance of Acadiana queer individuals who aren’t traditionally perceived as fitting within Cajun Culture.

In Chasah’s directorial debut, she will produce a short film that starts in the present day and replays the day’s events. At each pivotal moment, the audience’s perception is changed about who the instigator is of a violent outburst during a class reunion.  By presenting the story in reverse chronology, the visuals support the thematic question of “who is the victim and who is the aggressor?”

Kathleen will be part of a residency at Basin Arts entitled NATURE & ART between  July to September, 2023. The goal of the project is to promote deeper and intimate awareness and interactions with nature in our daily encounters through art-making.

Ten choreographers. Ten dances. All on a tiny 4×4’ stage. An experiment in confined space, Ten Tiny Dances® is a performance series dedicated to fostering inventive dance/performance art and providing an accessible performance experience for a diverse audience–all on a 4 by 4-foot stage.

A Filipino Louisiana Story is a 26-minute documentary film about the loss of history in marginalized communities. Filipinos have lived in Louisiana for over 200 hundred years, but their story is excluded from the dominant narratives that describe the state. This film will be an adaptation of Settling St. Malo (UL Press 2023), a collection of poems by UL professor and community historian Randy Gonzales.

Singer, songwriter and harmonica player Grant Dermody will produce his sixth recorded album Trouble Down Teche. This album will be a departure from his previously more traditional acoustic or amplified Blues records. He will dive more deeply into the other kinds of acoustic music of this region incorporating Gospel,Creole, Jure, Louisiana Blues and other, older forms of local and regional music, both vocal and instrumental.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!