Courtesy of the Hilliard Art Museum.
"Cajun Man," by George Rodrigue, one of Acadiana's most famous legacy artists. On display as part of the Hilliard Art Museum's exhibition "Sitting with George Rodrigue," on display through July 13, 2024.
Though Lafayette and the surrounding Acadiana region have long been home to a diverse tapestry of cultural expression—the organization of arts-focused initiatives on a community level can be traced back to the mid twentieth century, when the oil boom brought a new wave of commerce to the area. This era of opportunity in the 1940s represented a shift in Lafayette, as it transformed from a small farming community to a hub of business, industry, and tourism. The population mushroomed, as did a totally-re-invigorated infrastructure of restaurants, theatres, and hotels to support it. More schools opened, and the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute (now the University of Louisiana-Lafayette) expanded to meet the need. Nationally acclaimed artists and collectors began looking beyond nearby hubs of New Orleans and Houston as sites for galleries, and many set up in Lafayette—including artist James Cyphers, who opened his gallery in 1959 and exhibited works by some of the most famous artists in the world, including Monet, Rembrandt, Renoir, and Degas.
The university established the School of Art and Architecture in the 1950s, attracting some of the area’s first professional artist-educators—some of whom helped to organize the Lafayette Art Association in 1959. The organization was dedicated to facilitating local appreciation of and participation in high quality arts and art-making through critique lectures, art auctions, and workshops. Their programming included some of the city’s first large-scale public art exhibitions of local artists, including Lafayette educator, painter, and poet Pearl Mary Segura. Meanwhile, SLI’s School of Art faculty members set about producing exhibitions on campus in “The Stairwell Gallery” in Brown Ayers Hall.
Fundraising efforts by local organizations and philanthropists sought to build a home for such showcases of local art, and thereby established Lafayette’s first art museum—the Art Center for Southwest Louisiana, opened in 1968 in a building designed by acclaimed Louisiana architect A. Hays Town. The museum would bring some of the first nationally and internationally recognized artists to exhibit in the region and quickly became the city’s premiere arts institution. Later, the museum would officially partner with the existing SLI University Art Museum and move to an even more state-of-the-art exhibition space to become the Hilliard Art Museum.
In 1975 another group of community members came together to form the arts advocacy organization, the Acadiana Arts Council. Formed as part of a growing awareness for the importance of the arts and arts education across the country, the Council was dedicated to supporting artists and arts organizations through grants, and facilitating arts programming in the community itself. In 2004, the same year the new Hilliard museum opened its doors, the Arts Council established its own center and exhibition space in downtown Lafayette—the Acadiana Center for the Arts.
"The Acadiana visual arts world showcases a rich history, blending tradition with contemporary exploration. It's a dynamic scene that continues to evolve, reflecting the unique cultural heritage of this region." —George Marks, founder of NUNU Arts & Culture Collective
Towards the end of the twentieth century, artists like George Rodrigue with his “Blue Dogs”, Elemore Morgan Jr. with his en plein air Vermilion Parish landscapes, Herb Roe’s classical realism, and Robert Dafford’s murals emerged nationally as acclaimed artistic articulations of the Acadiana region—further elevating Lafayette and its surrounding area as a place of inspiration and setting the stage for the vibrant, dynamic Acadiana arts community that exists today.
[Read about Lafayette legacy artist Herb Roe, here.]
