The Big Bayou Music Festival Lineup
March 1, 2013
Courts rule in LHSAA’s favor; VCHS ousted from playoffs
March 5, 2013
It’s time again for what’s become a bi-annual tradition in the Houma-Terrebonne area: Southdown Marketplace, an arts and crafts fair conducted on the grounds of the Southdown Plantation Museum since 1978.
“Over 30 years has made it generational,” says Southdown Executive Director Rachel Cherry, who notes that 300 vendors and thousands of shoppers participate year after year. Homemade products range from works of art to embroidered baby items, from jewelry to jams and jellies, from wood crafts to garden items to books by local authors and numerous other creations.
“The best show is when you have the best mix of products,” Cherry says. “It appeals to a broad spectrum of people.”
New to the mix this year is NOLA Oyster Art, featuring a native product – oyster shells – painted and turned into hanging ornaments, ceiling-fan pulls and serving trays, and glued together to create topiaries. The trays are sealed with a heavy glaze so they’re safe for using for food service.
“I’m surprised that not many people are doing it with oysters being so common here,” says artist DeAnne Clark of Metairie, who has been working with oyster shells for about two years.
Clark started painting shells after her dancing group had decorated some in a kitschy fashion for Mardi Gras “and I just took it to another level,” she says. She cleans the shells, bleaching them for months before piecing them together for sculptures and painting for serving dishes. Clark started creating the topiaries for the holidays last year when she sold them in a Christmas craft show.
Working with the shells allows her to put her experience in designing jewelry to a different use, creating something with a lower price point than her previous jewelry creations, for which sales had slowed with the sluggish economy.
Clark says she’s excited about bringing her creations to Southdown Marketplace, which can draw 7,000 people for the day according to Cherry, because it exposes her creations to a new market.
Donna Graham of Houma, who is returning to Marketplace with her textured acrylic paintings for the fourth year, says the exposure she receives at the event always increases activity on her web site.
Her artwork has New Orleans feeling with its architectural elements that frame historical elements of people’s lives – they open a door to Cajun culture. Graham, who holds a degree from the Art Institute of Dallas and has taught private lessons and art in private school, also has a series of blue crab paintings, a second of whimsical trees and a third of cemeteries.
Although she’s painted most of her life, Graham started getting more serious about her art work about five years ago. As her two children get older, she’s finding more time to dedicate to art and hopes to be a full-time artist once her children are grown. Until then, she’s marketing her art through her web site, donnagrahamartist.com, and through events like Southdown Marketplace.
“I love it,” says Graham. “I just love the atmosphere… It’s just a fun day.”
The Marketplace is a vital element for the nonprofit Terrebonne Historical & Cultural Society and Southdown Plantation & Museum; the event – conducted in the spring and fall – is its primary fundraiser, helping to pay salaries, maintenance and new exhibit costs.
Southdown Marketplace takes place rain or shine; the entrance fee is $5 per person, with children under 12 admitted free. Children’s activities (some free) are co-sponsored by Kids in Motion Playhouse Discovery Museum. Delectable dishes such as corn soup, shrimp jambalaya, red beans and rice, chicken and sausage gumbo, and white beans are also for sale.
“Marketplace keeps us able to be open every day,” Cherry says, and it exposes people who may not have thought to visit the museum to its cultural historic offerings. Seventy-five to 100 people tend to take the one-hour museum tour during Marketplace, a statistic Cherry is working to increase. Museum admission is $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens and students; $4 for teenagers 13-18 and free for children under 12.
DeAnne Clark, of Metairie, sells her oyster shell creations, including this topiary, at Southdown Marketplace March 23.
Houma acrylic painter Donna Graham also presents her artwork at the bi-annual event.
