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September 5, 2012
VCHS hosts season’s first band face-off
September 5, 2012
The Terrebonne Fine Arts Guild presents this month the annual starlight stroll through downtown Houma, as transformed into a large arts shrine.
Live music and artists’ exhibits are presented at 27 venues during the annual Art After Dark celebration on Sept. 8. More than 50 artists are preparing to show their work, and five music demonstrations throughout the city provide an up-beat atmosphere.
“We’re excited,” says Karen Kelly, the guild’s treasurer and event chairwoman. “We’ve got new people and we’ve got some people that have been coming back year after year. It’s just a nice time to get out and enjoy artwork.”
Participants are whisked from venue to venue as they saturate themselves in various productions. Artists who exhibit, businesses that host and people who take the tour all do so free of charge.
Exhibits include paintings of various media, photography and jewelry. Organizers are trying to ensure that every outdoor exhibit is either under an overhang or a tent “in case we should, heaven forbid, get rain,” Kelly says before sarcastically adding, “Not that we get very much.”
Some venues, such as Fabregas Music, are “phantom” showings, which means the artwork is exhibited through open windows while the location is actually closed.
Beyond the surface attraction of artwork, ambiance and music, the exhibition gives participants a chance to get a nuanced look at downtown Houma’s alterations and to update their knowledge on the local art scene, which is seeing an influx from a younger generation.
“We have a lot of young artists who are showing their work for the first time,” says Aleta Leckelt, gallery director of the Terrebonne Fine Arts Guild.
After the opening reception at Downtown Art Gallery 630, the walking tour leads to Barrow Street, then Main all the way to Grinage, where the tour doubles back along Belanger Street. The last venue, after a lap around Goode Street, is Courthouse Square, where the Houma-Terrebonne Community Stage Band performs.
Participating venues along the tour include Scarlet Scoop, The Main Affair, Earl Williams Clothing Store and Thatcher Place. The Boxer & The Barrel participates this year through showing its Art Versus collection.
“People don’t go shopping down Main Street any more,” Kelly says. “Everybody goes to the mall and everybody else. This gives them another opportunity to walk around downtown.”
The 12 Strings Acoustic Duo (Downtown Art Gallery 630), Autumn High (The Salon Rubicon), Brent Melancon’s “Blues Explosion” (Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum), Gene Bonvillian and Don Babin (Terrebonne Folklife Culture Center) also perform.
Included among the checkpoints is the Seion Gallery of Fine Art, which hosts its grand opening at its new Belanger Street location. The gallery is opening in the old Stire Office World building at 300 Belanger St.
“It offers a prime downtown gallery location,” gallery owner Tami Charbonnet says. “The windows, the traffic, it’s perfect for an art gallery.”
At Main and Roussell streets, the 7887 Main serves as an integral part of the tour. Bar Roussell and Funktion Salon host exhibits, as does the building’s corridor, framing the historic staircase in the former City Court building.
Lori Davis, owner of 7887 Main says the building’s participation in the event allows people who normally don’t have the time or opportunity to tour the facility the chance to “view the resurrection of a building that had been dormant for many years,” which says something about Art After Dark’s ancillary draw.
“People can view local art as well as some of the establishments along the way, and it just gets people in the community together,” Davis says. “I think anything we do downtown in a positive light that gives people access to seeing local art as well as hearing local music and enjoying the local establishments, it’s a good community event.”
This is the 12th anniversary of Art After Dark, which started when Kelly heard of other exhibits running concurrent with one of her gallery’s openings. Word of mouth and coordination resulted in five exhibits opening that rainy night, and patrons travelled from site to site (including Southdown Plantation off the downtown strip) with umbrellas, Kelly says.
Kelly has been writing grant applications for advertising funding ever since. The Houma Regional Arts Council and Houma Downtown Development Corporation furnish the funding.
Formerly a bi-annual event, the guild eliminated the spring showing in 2011. Since 2000, the fall event has been cancelled only twice, in 2005 and 2008, both times due to hurricanes.
Kelly says she hopes the 10th fall Art After Dark increases awareness of the wide-ranging Terrebonne Parish arts culture.
“Our biggest thing is to make people aware that Terrebonne Parish really has a good arts community, and it’s very varied,” Kelly says. “New artists are starting out, and we’ve got the old artists who’ve been hanging around forever.”
Joycelyn Boudreaux, owner of Copperhead Studios, shows off her copper-based artwork at last year’s Art After Dark. More than 50 artists are preparing to exhibit their work on Sept. 8 at 27 venues scattered through downtown Houma for this year’s event.
