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A desire to celebrate the region’s culture as illustrated through local artists’ works has led to the showcasing of two documentary film shorts in an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.
Andrea Dupree’s “Art of the Bayou” films highlighting Darlene Eschete’s wildlife photography, painting and activism and Joycelyn Boudreaux’s copper manipulation are included in the “A Woman’s Work” exhibit through July 28 at the center, which is curated in partnership with Women in Film and Television Louisiana.
It spotlights original experimental videos, web series, documentaries and original narrative films made by women in Louisiana plus a documentary created for “A Woman’s Work” featuring interviews with more than 50 women in Louisiana’s film industry – including those who direct or produce works, art directors, costume designers and stuntwomen – discussing their lives and careers.
Dupree’s film series explores the past, present and future of south Louisiana through visual arts, traditional crafts, dance, design, media art and photography.
“I really just want to honor the artists we have working here and all the environmental issues south Louisiana is facing,” said Dupree, of Houma. “People talk about protecting the area, protecting our culture. I wanted to show people the faces of our culture. These are the faces we want to protect … to show that people put a lot of passion and though into the work they’re producing.”
While she has profiled the works and personalities of more than 30 artists who have websites, an exhibition venue or other professional presentation, most of the interviews are still in the post-production phase. In addition to Boudreaux and Eschete, Dupree has completed films on Kevin Brown, Susan Talbot Hoffmann, Brooks Frederick, Black Guidry, Rusty Bouvier and Brandon Champagne. Some can be viewed at www.artofthebayou.com and www.houmaregionalartscouncil.org.
An overriding theme emerging from the project is the influence of a teacher, parent or other authority figure who helped influence the artists to pursue their creative paths, she said. “We have a lot of connections” through the arts community, Dupree said. “Copperhead Tattoos has a gallery in the studio,” but the tattoo artist took children’s art classes at Terrebonne Fine Arts Guild in the summer. “The art guild is such a fixture in the community (that) it’s cool they’ve inspired people to pursue their ambitions.”
That observation, Dupree said, makes Gov. Bobby Jindal’s recent veto of decentralized arts funding much sadder because it cuts support not only to the Houma Regional Arts Council, but also the art programs the council funds through grants. In June, Jindal cut $500,000 from the state’s $2 million arts budget through line-item veto.
“Although this cut doesn’t directly affect ‘Art of the Bayou’, I think it makes the project’s mission of showcasing our state’s artists and their contribution to what makes Louisiana such a unique place even more urgent,” Dupree said.
Since 2008, the arts council’s state funds have been cut by more than 60 percent, according to Glenda Toups, the agency’s executive director. “It’s always been a struggle because these decentralized art grants are distributed per capita,” so areas with less population receive fewer dollars. But the legislators understand the economic value of arts in the community, Toups said. For each $1 granted by the arts council, organizations match it with $6 of their own funds, even though a match is not required. That pays for performing artists, teaching workshops, providing supplies and other program expenses.
“Art of the Bayou” is underwritten by a grant to the arts council from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, as well as sponsorship from the Houma Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. It aims to promote cultural tourism in the arts council’s service area while illustrating another reason south Louisiana is worth protecting and providing another outlet to connect artists to potential buyers.
“This is one of the reasons people think this is such a neat place – people making stuff,” Dupree said, adding that as a teen, she couldn’t wait to move to New Orleans, and eventually did. But she realized the support available to the art community, and the space available for creating art, so Dupree returned and has embraced the local artistic environment.
Dupree, who holds a fine arts degree with concentrations in ceramics and video art from Nicholls State University, learned about the grant opportunity through her part-time affiliation with the arts council as manager of the Coastal Communities Youth Arts Project. Since 2011, the youth program has featured several performances of storytellers at area libraries and professional development on art integration for teachers and librarians.
Dupree’s projects have included music videos and stage visuals for bands’ performances, a “Stories from Dulac” documentary, a stereoscopic 3D project at Historic New Orleans Collection and editing of documentaries for the Historic New Orleans Collection and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
Her films had been evolving into experimental documentaries, which tell factual stories through more abstract presentations, using puppets and animation and other techniques to illustrate Louisiana’s future. Dupree saw an opportunity to expand her work by inviting more artists to participate and conduct behind-the-scenes interviews to document the artists’ processes. She approached Toups about the idea, and the project took shape.
“It was an extremely good fit because we had previously applied (for grants) from NEA but not in this category,” Toups said. “So it seemed to be something that was a next evolution in funding applications … Film was one of those (genres) that we had not been able to take advantage of” recently.
The diverse spread of artists profiled in the project, who responded to an open call for artists, “I feel is a true representation of the artists we have here” in Terrebonne, Lafourche, Assumption, St. Charles, St. James and St. John parishes, Toups said.
Selections from the films will be screened 6-8 p.m. July 25 at the Houma Regional Arts Council’s pARTy, the first in a series of quarterly events highlighting arts council programming. The evening includes live music and refreshments; tickets cost $25 each and can be purchased by calling 873-6367.
Although the NEA grant support ends June 2014, Dupree is looking for other grant programs to support screening the films in bayou communities followed by one-day art workshops.
– katherine@gumboguide.com
Houma native Andrea Dupree stands over Bayou Terrebonne with the Waterlife Museum behind her. Dupree is managing “Art of the Bayou,” a docu-series project examining dozens of local artists. Some of her films are shown this month.
