Image courtesy of NUNU Arts & Culture Collective.
To best understand the Acadiana art scene, a good place to begin is on the outskirts of Lafayette, in the little town of Arnaudville. Here is where, in 2005, the mixed media artist George Marks embarked on the nationally-recognized creative placemaking project that is NUNU Arts & Culture Collective. For almost twenty years now, the gallery and community it promises has attracted a wave of creatives, drawn to establish their studios in the quiet, though culturally-rich, rural community. Visit NUNU almost any day and find an eclectic gathering of artists, musicians, thinkers, and community-builders gathered around sipping coffee, or in the back working on their creative projects. Most of the historic warehouse where NUNU resides is occupied by gallery space, showcasing a rotation of international and local artistic explorations of Francophone culture, as well as selections from the Collective’s member artists. Visitors can also peruse member artists’ work in the adjacent marketplace, where paintings, books, pottery, and other art objects are for sale. With its ambitious calendar of artist receptions, culture tables, concerts, workshops, and more—NUNU is a great place to immerse oneself in the regional art community, and connect with artists in action.
[Read this story from the Country Roads archives—the year 2006—about the early days of NUNU.]
Image courtesy of NUNU Arts and Culture Collective
While wandering the backroads beyond Lafayette, discover other locally-owned small town galleries exhibiting area artists: including artist Paul Schexnayder’s A&E Gallery in New Iberia and Pink Alligator Gallery in Breaux Bridge. Breaux Bridge is also home to the Teche Center for the Arts, which regularly exhibits local artists and hosts creative workshops.
"The Acadiana art scene is collaborative, misunderstood, close-knit, scrappy, and inventive." —Jaik Faulk, Visual Arts Director at the Acadiana Center for the Arts
In Lafayette proper, a conglomerate of galleries and arts-focused businesses have congregated downtown—where the first Saturday artwalk transforms the district into an arts-focused wonderland, with businesses open late, galleries hosting openings, and independent artists and creatives setting up booths on the sidewalk. At the center of this community is Basin Arts, a multidisciplinary contemporary arts incubator, which hosts resident artists in its space (go say "hi" to Dirk Guidry) and brings together the artist community for regular critique nights, open studios, and more. The gallery space at Basin Arts regularly features exciting, immersive installations and artwork by Lafayette artists on a rotating basis. Basin Arts is also responsible for much of the art visitors to downtown Lafayette will see in local businesses—thanks to its revolutionary Bare Walls service, which allows businesses to rent local artwork at an affordable rate that also provides a residual income to artists.
Courtesy of Dusty Reed.
Colk Art—a combination of cubism and folk art, practiced by Lafayette artist Dusty Reed, "The Cajun Picasso". See Reed's work in his studio at the Lafayette Art Association Gallery.
Also downtown, find the Louisiana Craft Guild’s gallery, Sans Souci Fine Crafts—which exclusively features some of the best of Louisiana artisanship in mediums ranging from pottery and furniture to metalwork and photography. The Lafayette Art Association, who helped launch Lafayette’s creative arts scene over sixty years ago, has their Main Gallery on the outskirts of the downtown district near the university and Oil Center—where they display regular exhibitions of member work, offering a rich sampling of the area’s emerging and veteran artists. Artists engage directly with the community through a robust offering of workshops in mediums from jewelry making to tatting to alcohol inks. You can also find LAA member work on display across town at the Lafayette Public Library, City Hall, the Convention & Visitors Center, the Vermilionville Acadian Cultural Center, and Poupart’s Bistro.
Courtesy of Roz LeCompte
Acadiana artist Roz LeCompte in front of her mural for the Basin Arts Projectspace Residency installation, "Femme Unmuted".
Digging their heels into the rich cultural soil of the Acadiana region, many local artists maintain studios and galleries open to the public. Downtown, you’ll find Atrium Gallery, featuring the work of Louisiana landscape painter Stephen Frederick; as well as Pavy Studio—with its display of small-batch textiles and wallpaper derived from the art of internationally-renowned mixed-media painter Francis Pavy. Over on Garfield Street is the Warehouse on Garfield, the longtime studio and gallery space occupied by Herb Roe, a veteran of the Lafayette art scene whose distinct style of realism has captured various aspects of South Louisiana culture since the early 2000s. Visit the gallery to see selections from his extensive body of work, as well as those of a small collective of other working artists.
[Read more about Herb Roe and his work in this story from our February 2017 issue.]
Art by Bryant Benoit.
"Family Tyme" by Bryant Benoit. See more of Benoit's work at his gallery in Lafayette.
Outside of the downtown district, other artist-specific galleries in Lafayette that are well-worth the visit include Benoit Gallery—where Lafayette native Bryant Benoit’s multi-media collages illustrate the history and legacy of Creole life in South Louisiana. Tony Bernard’s gallery is also worth a visit, featuring his lively collection of “Cajun Pop” paintings. Bernard was a mentee of the one and only George Rodrigue—whose artwork perhaps more than any other artist has come to represent Louisiana’s culture. The Rodrigue family still operates a studio of the late artist’s work just five minutes away from Bernard’s studio, featuring a selection of his most famous works.
