September 2011. Acadiana’s Inexhaustible Impresario

Maureen Brennan is of an age when she might reasonably kick back and rest upon well-earned laurels.

Not this lady. Though festooned with enough credentials and honors—stretching from Tulsa to Paris—that she might reasonably kick-back, she instead is a full-throttle positive personality blessed with endless community good will. A go-getter who tells everyone, “If you wait till you feel like it, you will never get it done.” A phrase that could headline her life story.

Among the laurels Brennan well deserves is one as the founder and director of Cité des Arts, “a multi-user” arts facility that began in 2002 as a grassroots incubator for Lafayette and the Acadiana area. This is a full time effort for which she receives no salary. She juggles this demanding task with her day-job as a clinical psychologist. Brennan, a Tulsa native, first came to Lafayette in 1974, moved away, and founded Cité des Arts when she returned permanently.

“We are a facility organization,” Brennan says of her volunteer project. “We exist to provide an environment where artists and non-artists can learn, collaborate, perform, and also develop new works.”

The facility includes two stages, a fully equipped more formal one-hundred-seat theater, and a smaller more flexible stage with basic lighting and sound. There is also a dance studio, music room, gallery space, and a café with a small performance area as well.

Cité also produces events, such as the upcoming Hub City Theater Festival in December. Local and regional arts organizations, as well as individual artists, use the space for classes, auditions, rehearsals, screenings, recordings and performances.

“We provide space for Festival International, and Festivals Acadiens et Creoles, and for two film festivals.”

Classes are offered in dance, music, acting for stage and acting for film, and regular free events include a weekly Bluegrass Jam and a free film series. Different theater groups use the space, too, including local school classes.

“The diversity of programming sets us apart from other arts organizations. We work with groups to make the space affordable to a wide range of organizations and we work with both established and emerging artists to develop works in progress, connecting them with mentors and collaborators where needed.”

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