“The fire was July 11, 2010, and nine months prior to that we had a car drive into the side of the building,” says George Marks, painter and catalyst for NuNu’s, the arts collective which helped foster an arts awakening in Arnaudville. NuNu’s—as well as Marks’s studio, a performing arts stage and more gathered under the name Town Market Center—was cut short in its prime when the building was destroyed. “The fire was July 11, 2010, and nine months prior to that we had a car drive into the side of the building,” says George Marks, painter and catalyst for NuNu’s, the arts collective which helped foster an arts awakening in Arnaudville. NuNu’s—as well as Marks’s studio, a performing arts stage and more gathered under the name Town Market Center—was cut short in its prime when the building was destroyed.
“Once we got opened back up [after the car wreck], the fire happened and that totally threw us. Right after that we had a meeting scheduled with the Office of Cultural Development. I called them to say the meeting was canceled, you know, because the building was gone, and they said we are going to come anyway and have a different kind of meeting.”
It’s difficult to put a finger on what NuNu’s was all about, mainly because their vision for cultural development was so wide. “We decided the most important thing was to continue programming, and that’s sort of where we are now. Our programming scattered; we started doing it in different places and we quickly realized that it was a good thing, to have it dispersed not just in Arnaudville, but in Grand Coteau and elsewhere. We started looking in Baton Rouge, in New Orleans, in other places to take the programming we created in Arnaudville, not only to showcase what we have but for audience development.”
George explains how this tragedy helped them refocus their energies. “At first we were going to do this whole rebuild and brought in all these groups to help, and all of a sudden it became about a building, just a building, and we were never about a building. We were about what was inside.”
For the annual Fire and Water Festival, NuNu’s took up temporary residence in the Singleton Lumber building. “It was just a place to stage the events, and something really bizarre happened. People started showing up and it was a joke, ‘I saw a NUNU’s sign hanging out front!’ Of course they were joking but more and more, people asked if we would consider this. With a few modifications, this would be it.” Marks made a deal with the owners to exchange part of the rent for updating the facilities. “For the last eight months, we’ve been renovating the building, not doing any more than we need to do.” The most important revisions, though, were to the organization.
“The participatory use of the space has changed a bit. While we were down, we reevaluated what we were about, what we were trying to do, what was working, what wasn’t,” Marks explains. “I’m a visual artist. If I want the party to continue, I need to paint, because that’s how we funded a lot of what we do, through the sale of my work, or at least how we did it in the past. In this financial climate, with cuts to funding, we were going to have to depend more and more on this kind of fundraising. It allowed me to open a studio in New Orleans, the Atelier-Magasin, while also tying it back to what we were doing in Arnaudville and Acadiana.”
Atelier-Magasin is a studio and gallery space on Magazine Street in New Orleans, showcasing artists from across the state, connecting disparate arts scenes from across the region. “It seems like everybody operates in their own little vacuum, so we wanted to connect those groups. It allowed me to focus on being a painter and to share a lot of what I was doing with other people that are interested.”
Marks explained that by releasing control over parts of the organization, they started to flourish. The Music of Acadiana Stage program under Linda Castle now includes a live Cajun music performance on the last Sunday of the month, the Bayou Blues Revival on Memorial Day weekend, Acadiana Irish Music Sessions every other Wednesday, and more programming is in the works.
“People need to be vested in the programs, to feel like they own it. What we’ve done is allow NuNu to become a community organization where all of these groups are now. They don’t have to participate in each other’s program, but they have access to the over-arching umbrella.”
Marks went on to explain some of the other programs.
“Atelier Courtableau is in the building, or will be for Fire and Water, and will pull in artists from Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans, kind of what we are doing in New Orleans but in Arnaudville.”
“Cafe NuNu is a culinary collective where Joella LeBlanc is going to be there every Saturday with her sweet dough pies and her food because that’s who’s cooking. You come on Tuesday, it’s my mom and her gumbo and her pressed sandwiches. Each day you come it’s a different chef with their own menu. The chef’s have access to an approved kitchen where they can produce food they can sell, without having to create a whole restaurant for themselves.”
“We’ve become an incubator program, which is what we always intended to be. Patrice Melnick started the Festival of Words through the Frederick School and Town market, but now it’s its own non-profit and we partner with them.”
One of the most interesting additions to the NuNu universe is Maison d’Artiste. “Maison d’Artiste, the little guest house we decided to open, is dedicated to two Louisiana artists. Right now it is Lisa diStephano and Scott Finch. Each room has all of their artwork. It’s like sleeping inside of their head. The colors they like, the snacks they like to eat, the books they like to read, everything about them. When you sleep there, a percentage goes to Louisiana Partnership for the Arts, and a portion goes to the NuNu’s non-profit for the Frederick School for the Arts. You can sleep there with a good conscience.”
“The thing we realized after the fire is that if this is going to exist beyond me and everyone else involved, we have to pull in other communities, where we can go to the larger communities and say ‘If you want the real thing, you come to these small towns. But here’s a taste.’ As bad as the fire was—it was terrible; I lost a lot, the other artists lost a lot, it almost feels like, and I hate saying this, like I’m justifying it, but it feel like it was a little like a sacrificial lamb. It’s allowed us to step back and look at all this.”
Details. Details. Details.
The base of operations for the NuNu Arts and Culture Collective is the Old Singleton building.
1510 Courtableau Road
(Highway 93 East)
Arnaudville, La
