Pelican Ball Honoree: Todd Mouton

2024 Pelican Ball Honoree Spotlight, by Ruth Foote

The Lafayette arts scene is thriving. Top quality. On the rise with an abundance of potential. Its future—secured. Its culture—as unique and as interesting as others across the global stage. And even more so. 

Standing steadfast, as the epicenter of the arts community, is Acadiana Center for the Arts, having transformed an aged parking lot with an adjacent bank in disuse into a beautiful facility with a great staff and events. It has become the venue that gathers lovers of the arts, fans and tourists, from far and wide, to appreciate and celebrate its essence and purpose. 

That is why cultural renaissance man Todd Mouton, in reflecting, has no qualms about the future—nor the state—of the arts and cultural scene in Lafayette. 

“There were a lot of people, there are a lot of people, and I think there will continue to be a lot of people who are attracted to this place and this way of living we have,” he says, “but also know that it can go further and it can excite people up in Chicago or over in Thailand.” 

But there is a reason why. 

“The reason we have nice things in Lafayette, like Festival International or Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, or the AcA,” he adds, “the reason we have those things is because we believe in our value, and we believe that it’s as good—our dignity, our respect—it’s as good as anybody, anywhere, anytime, anything.”  

Figuratively and literally, it is an impressive environment that the 55-year-old award-winning author, media personality, arts and cultural bearer, and budding musician has helped to develop—and has been living—for most his life. 

There exists, after all, a half-century-old recording in which a post-toddler Mouton, perhaps age five or six, pronounced his plans to become an artist or an architect. He laughs as he shares the memorable tidbit because he’s not even sure how he knew—less understood—those words at such an early age. 

But through determination, happenstance and commitment, life has carved him such a path, and Mouton has not had much time to gaze backwards. Of course, there have been regrets along the way, and he knows there were better ways to handle things, as always is the case, according to hindsight. But today’s moments, for now and for the years ahead, are what matter the most. And that is what Mouton looks forward to fulfilling. 

Seven years have passed, and yet the time seems fleeting, since Mouton first began serving as executive director of the Pugh Family Foundation, which supports “public education as a fulcrum for improving communities.” 

His current role only tops an amazing lineage of career achievements that seem more like fun than work, but that have taken him front and center, and behind the scenes, in moving Lafayette forward through artistic, cultural, social, economic and educational endeavors. 

Becoming a Pelican Ball honoree has brought his life full circle. He was totally surprised, totally thrilled.

“I just thought Sam [Oliver] might be calling me about some idea for some programming or some meeting we might need to have about public schools, or something,” he recalls. 

But these are his people. This is still his home. And he feels humbled by the honor, welcoming the opportunity to celebrate with everyone. 

Early days at KRVS/88.7 FM radio station, a National Public Radio affiliate, saw founding producer Mouton, with shoulder length hair, co-hosting the popular Dirty Rice radio show, which showcased area musicians. It was during a time when recordings were created with Hi-Fi VHS tapes. While the tapes are considered archaic tools in today’s digital world, his program was the foundation—and a springboard—that led to writing and freelancing about the area’s music and cultural scene for The Times of Acadiana, The Daily Advertiser and Offbeat Magazine. 

In years, thereafter, came Louisiana Crossroads—Lafayette’s version of Austin City Limits—that transformed the arts scene, and upleveled the region’s rich culture. He is proud of the ten years, and then some, as director of what he considers as a “Humanities-scholar-based music performance and discussion series.” 

And for Mouton, defined once as “a scholar with alternative credentials,” there was also the decade-plus stint as executive director of Louisiana Folk Roots, where he oversaw what he describes as “one of the state’s leading folk-culture-based organizations.” It, too, not only elevated—and validated—area artists and resounded their musical prose, but in addition, it embraced the younger generation into the fold through summer enrichment programs. It ensured that heritage was handed down. 

“I’m not afraid that the Cajun culture will die, the Creole culture will die, because it’s too awesome, and people love it,” he says. 

But according to Mouton, it is imperative “to seed the field.” 

“We have to all make an effort to introduce our children and our friends’ children, and grandchildren, to real deal, quality awesome experiences,” he says. 

Whether he was working as development director and grants officer of AcA’s former namesake, Acadiana Arts Council, serving as founding editor-at-large for The Independent, or volunteering as co founder of the Dr. Tommy Comeaux Memorial Endowed Fund for Traditional Music, which raised $1.6 million for an endowed chair at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Mouton is proud of his feats through the decades. 

“When you’re doing the work, you don’t want the recognition,” he says. “You want it to go to the artists and to the beautiful production, and all the different things.”  

They are his true heroes. And he is the first to admit that being able to celebrate his accomplishments and experiences would not be reality if it were not for all the seen and unseen individuals, organizations and groups he has worked, collaborated and volunteered with in order to get things done. There are familiar names upon whose shoulders he has stood or whose feet he has sat to gain wisdom and experience, which ranged from taking a course with Dr. Barry Ancelet to being recruited by Dr. Joe Riehl to be a volunteer for Festival International, and rising through the years to become that nonprofit’s board vice-president.

His role today has become a perfect fit for a perfect time as the Pugh Family Foundation, founded by Nick and JoAnn Pugh in 2000, intervenes in the lives of hundreds of Lafayette children and their families to ensure academic success through its multi-year, multi-million-dollar Accelerating Campus Excellence model, known as ACE, at two public schools. 

Mouton is grounded, and eager for the challenge, a partnership with the Lafayette Parish School System, that kicked off this fall at J.W. Faulk Elementary School and Raphael A. Baranco Elementary School. They are “historically lower performing schools,” according to officials. While it may be too early to discuss the project’s impact, it is not too early to commit to its goals and objectives. And that has already taken place. 

For Mouton, challenges have always been a way of life. And a welcome. Wide-eyed, and with optimism and conviction, he has always proceeded forth. 

Mouton realizes that the impact of his overall journey, and that taking big—and small—steps has always enabled him to participate in projects that demand immediate action. Like the Alfred Mouton statue. As cofounder of Move the Mindset, Mouton was responsible for helping to set into motion the actions that eventually led to the removal of the statue in recent years. 

Though he bears the same last name as the Confederate general, he is not a direct descendant. However, he is a proud descendant of Jean Mouton, who founded Lafayette as Vermilionville. The founder is his fifth-great-grandfather. 

Mouton’s work hasn’t stopped there. A second edition of his award-winning book, Way Down in Louisiana: Clifton Chenier, Cajun, Zydeco, and Swamp Pop Music, is set for release in 2025, coinciding with the King of Zydeco’s 100-year anniversary. It will focus more on the legend. 

Just as Mouton has embraced the arts world, it has embraced him. He credits his parents, Ray and Janis Mouton, as his biggest influences, for exposing him and his two younger siblings to the arts. His father is a writer who has published two books, and his mother received a degree in fine arts. They always had artists and musicians over to their home, including renowned author Ernest J. Gaines. 

Mouton enjoys life with his partner Vanessa LaSala. And he looks forward to the future. 

Needless to say, life has not stopped him from breaking new ground, or taking bolder steps into the music scene, even as an artist himself. While he loves zydeco and Cajun music, he enjoys playing live performances of Rolling Stones-inspired music, based upon rhythm and blues, with his friends. Music allows him to “be in the now, and step into your joy, and kind of just appreciate the moment.” 

Does that mean an album is forthcoming? There’s a bucket list of his that seems to fill as fast as it fulfills. And that means it is on there, too. 

And besides, Todd Mouton has learned through the years to never say never, especially when he’s having so much fun. 

Why are the arts so important to a community? “Well, there’s a saying about the last thing a fish discovers is water,” Mouton replies. “I think that self-expression—I mean we live in this world, again talking about all the challenges we face around identity, and equity, and inclusion, and the starting point for everything is expression.” 

“But at the end of the day, I think arts should be—and are—a safe place, a safe space, for expression in trying things out,” he adds. “And at the end of the day, teaching and learning is all we actually do, and sharing is how we amplify that.”