Andre Arceneaux
Operated through Lafayette’s cross-disciplinary arts incubator, Basin Arts, BARE Walls is an organization dedicated to connecting local artists with local businesses—creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the two that grants artists exposure and income while also bringing more art into the community. Pictured on top from left to right: artist and BARE Walls Program Director, as well as Co-founder, Dirk Guidry; founder and Director of Basin Arts Clare Cook; and BARE Walls Program Manager Michael Eble.
Sitting at the doctor’s office, waiting for your server to bring your iced tea, passing through the lobby at your apartment complex: such activities are easily made sterile, plain, unexciting by routine. But blankness can be broken consistently by a single thing—beauty.
This is the mission of BARE Walls—a Lafayette organization operated through cross-disciplinary arts incubator, Basin Arts—which is dedicated to infusing creativity and life into the community’s businesses through local art.
[Read more about Basin Arts and its other endeavors in this story from our April 2018 issue.]
Dirk Guidry, the organization’s Program Director and Co-founder, is known for his vibrant, swirling abstract works, iconic cultural murals, and live event paintings. With the help of the 24-Hour Citizen Project—an annual event in Lafayette where people with community-focused ideas and expertise are connected with financial backers—BARE Walls launched in 2018 with a goal of supporting the arts in Acadiana. BARE Walls works from the premise that any wall can essentially be a gallery and strives to create an appreciation for local artists within the community. The art itself varies in subject matter, size, medium, and notoriety of the artist. “We look for anyone with passion,” said Guidry. “From the self-taught to the well-established.” Fame and experience are not required to be part of BARE Walls, though the art must meet a certain caliber. For those who fall just short of the quality standard, the program offers constructive feedback, in the form of mentoring and guidance on how to improve one’s craft.
Andre Arceneaux
Artist Kristie Mayeaux’s mixed media work“Celosia,” which is in rotation in the BARE Walls Project and made an appropriate feature for local business CENTRAL Pizza & Bar.
For emerging artists and students, BARE Walls is a “rare and valuable opportunity to gain exposure with the public, but also to gain some residual income within their own local art community,” said Michael Eble, BARE Walls’ program manager and curator of events and engagement for the College of the Arts at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Eble explained that the business of art just isn’t taught, especially in the increasingly virtual market. “It’s a whole new world,” he said.
For more established artists, this avenue of sharing their work is equally exciting. “A lot of artists like myself, us older people, we don’t understand the advertising,” said painter Tony Mayard, who picked up a brush for the first time in 1968. He later did commission work while in the United States Army, has shown his works in galleries throughout Louisiana, and now has pieces in rotation at BARE Walls. Mayard’s studio and home overflow with the artwork of his own, other local artists, and from his travels around the world. “All this is priceless,” he said, “either in a monetary form, or an emotional one.”
“BARE Walls gives local artists more chances,” said Erin Gray, who received her Bachelors in Fine Arts with a concentration in painting from the University of Louisiana Lafayette. “If you’re a student, you can’t just walk into a gallery and get your art on a wall. But, here, you can get your work seen easily.” The exposure is good for the artist and the restaurant. It’s a symbiotic relationship. “The art opens the door for more people to come in. They want to see it.” said Gray, who in addition to being a featured artist of BARE Walls, manages participating restaurant CENTRAL Pizza & Bar.
CENTRAL, as it is commonly called, is the warm hug from the Italian grandmother that you never had. During lunch and dinner hours the smell of fire-roasted pizza crust lures area professionals, construction workers, and skateboarders to the black and white octagon checkered floor, mirror-lined walls, and repurposed church pew seating. Walking through the restaurant, your eye is naturally drawn to the various paintings on the wall.
Andre Arceneaux
Erin Gray (bottom) is both a local artist participating in BARE Walls and the manager of Central Pizza & Bar, which displays works from the program.
Celosia is a small genus of edible and ornamental flowers whose name originates from the Ancient Greek meaning “fire”. So, it is fitting that the newest work prominently displayed in the wood-burning oven restaurant is a piece bearing the same name by local artist, Kristie Mayeaux.
An appreciation for the arts is shared by Robert Autin, M.D., owner of the Acadian Superette––an authentic Cajun shop with everything Louisiana from andouille to Zatarain’s. With a desire to beautify the space he occupied, Autin was an early adopter of the program and has become one of its cornerstone clients.
“Regardless of your budget as a business, the price of a subscription is modest,” said Autin. Some works available for display through BARE Walls are valued at as much as $5,000. For a fraction of that, a business can rent the piece so long as it isn’t purchased. Autin notices how many people, both employees and customers, pay attention to and engage with the artwork in the restaurant. “Customers will often ask if they can buy a piece we have up, so we direct them to the BARE Walls’ website,” he said.
Autin is aware of the difference the art makes within his restaurant, where one might sometimes feel as though they are being taken back in time: drinking coffee, listening to Cajun music while older men and women hold a conversation in French at the table next to you. There’s a connection that people make to a painting like “Be Still and Know” by Broussard artist Larry “Kip” Hayes while eating an overstuffed shrimp po’boy. You can almost hear the sounds of cattails rustling in the wind.
“BARE Walls gives local artists more chances.”
—Erin Gray
In the wake of COVID-19, the National Restaurant Association is reporting that the restaurant industry has already lost $120 billion and is on track to lose $240 by year’s end.* Those are scary numbers for everyone, but in an area known for its food, it is a devastating cultural blow.
Guidry and Eble are optimistic in these dark times. They have enough business to keep BARE Walls going, but they are still hesitant to approach new companies to discuss partnerships. “You don’t want to put a burden on anybody, and timing with anything is tricky,” said Guidry. Even though businesses aren’t as open as they usually are, BARE Walls participants are thrilled to have artwork to showcase. Just having art on the walls “hopefully gives everyone a sense of normalcy,” as Gray said, something that has been missing lately.
Despite the world’s state of standstill, Eble and Guidry hope to continue to evolve and grow with the program. “We’d love to set up some works outside, branch out to other areas of the state, do more mural work, or even possibly start a residential subscription plan,” said Guidry. “In the grand scheme of things, it can help us bring together the gaps of all the arts in Acadiana.”
While we are uncertain how long we will wait until we gather again with friends in a crowded restaurant, and uncertain how long it will be until we can lift glasses with our friends at a bar, or dance at a festival, creation is still happening, and there are still bare walls to fill.
BARE Walls
113 Clinton St.
Lafayette, LA 70501
