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News Don't miss the upcoming Lafourche Heritage Day: Sunday, March 14, Larose Civic Center! Also, why not stop in the office of the Cultural Coalition's new public folklorist, Lynn Hadley, at the same office as Les Reflections du Bayou in Cut Off! Ask Lynn how you can help to preserve our unique culture along Bayou Lafourche! |
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Members of Cultural Coalition
Links to other Bayou Lafourche Sites
Members of Cultural Coalition:
Cajun Heritage Festival
Les Amis du francais de Lafourche
Biloxi-Chitimacha Tribe
Cheniere Hurricane Centennial
Friends of Traditional Louisiana Boat Building
Cajun Country Music, Inc.
KLEB French Radio Station
CODOFIL
Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary Foundation
LES REFLECTIONS DU BAYOU LES AMIS DU FRANCAIS
......................Maison Lafourche!
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NEA Challenge America Grant Helps to Complete Design Process
The Cajun Cultural Coalition has just completed its grant with the Tulane Regional Urban Design Center (TRUDC)to come up with a conceptual design for its future cultural center. The grant was a Challenge America Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Grant monies helped to keep TRUDC on the project until conceptual work was complete. Anyone who would like to see the completed model of the cultural center is welcomed to visit the Larose Civic Center for a look at it.The mission of the Bayou Lafourche Cultural Center Project is to preserve and pass on the rich cultural life along Bayou Lafourche by building an extraordinary coalition of cultural organizations and the general public and by rallying local, state and federal support for the establishment of a vibrant, multi-disciplinary cultural facility along Bayou Lafourche.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT
1 This project will create a home (comfortable, informal, aesthetic) as well as a workplace (rigorous, productive, pragmatic) in order to establish the vitality of Bayou Lafourche as a “workplace” (petroleum, seafood, shipbuilding, agriculture) and the subsequent and necessary cultural adaptations along Bayou Lafourche as a “home” (language, music, art forms, cuisine, lifestyle).
2 This project will place Bayou Lafourche history and culture within a broader context while identifying its uniqueness.
3 This project will objectify local culture just enough to inspire its critical study while encouraging its contemporary adoption, without relegating culture to the past.
4 This project will illustrate the integral relationship between the area’s natural and cultural heritage and document the erosion of both.
5 This project will celebrate tradition while highlighting innovation such that the overall impact is to encourage cultural adaptation as the surest means of passing on cultural practices.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Cultural Center Project, Bayou Civic Club, Inc., P.O. Box 1105, Larose, LA 70373
Project Consultant: Lynn Hadley
TULANE'S CENTER DESIGNS PROJECT
The Tulane Regional Urban Design Center, under the direction of Mr. Grover Mouton, has completed work on the design of two buildings for the Cultural Coalition, one of an entire cultural center and the other of an outdoor cultural pavillion. The models of the two designs can be seen at the Larose Civic Center.
In December of 2000, representatives of area cultural groups were called together for a joint meeting by the Larose Civic Center. The Center had been approached by the individual groups for space to carry out their missions. The Center instructed the groups that if they got together on a project, the Center would consider hosting it on their grounds.
In 2001, representatives of 13 cultural groups formed a coalition with the intent of establishing a multi-disciplinary cultural facility where all of them could work. The coalition spent the year visiting cultural centers around the state and bringing back ideas for their joint "home." Then the Louisiana Division of the Arts gave the coalition a grant to visit four cultural centers around the country. In 2001, the coalition also organized its first joint fund-raiser, A Bayou Christmas. The event was an over-riding success for a first-time fund-raiser and raised some $7,000.
In February of 2002, the Coalition entered into a contract with the Tulane Regional Urban Design Center out of the Tulane School of Architecture. After Tulane comes up with the overall design of the facility, the coalition will take that design on the road to get it funded. Plans are for the Cultural Center to open in January of 2005.
The Bayou Lafourche Cultural Coalition hopes that other cultural groups will consider joining the Coalition. Anyone interested in preserving our amazing culture can contact any of the members of the cultural coalition or call the Larose Civic Center at 693-7355 to get involved.
Let it snow? Let it snow? Let it snow?The annaul fund-raiser for the Cultural Center Project is the celebration, A Bayou Christmas. The Coalition brought the festival back after M.A.D.D. gave it up a few years ago. If you can help out with planning for this event, please contact Lynn Hadley, the public folklorist assigned to work on cultural preservation along Bayou Lafourche.
Les Artistes du Bayou has informed the Cajun Cultural Coalition that it is withdrawing from the Coalition! The Coalition wishes to thank all the artists who have helped on the Cultural Center Project over the past three years and wishes them all luck in their future endeavors!
100 Activities to be Held at Future Cultural Facility
