On Aug. 28, 2025, the Acadiana Center for the Arts held an event in which they invited the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s College of the Arts department to come eat, enjoy music and look at some of the art exhibits on display. This event included multiple different art exhibits for attendees to explore and even stands about art-related events occurring within Lafayette. Some examples included an advertisement for the Hilliard Art Museum, one for a play of August Wilson’s “Fences” put on by the Cité des Arts Sidman Theater and one for the Lafayette Art Association.
When you first arrived at the event and checked yourself in, you were given the opportunity to draw on a canvas. This canvas was filled with drawings from other attendees, essentially creating a big collage of all the art from the attendees. Seeing all the different drawings come together as time went on was a great aspect of the event. It really gave you the chance to see into the minds of others, even if they may not be artists.
One of the first exhibits I visited was the animation showing in the James Devin Mincus Theater. The animation was called “The Way Up” and was made by Drew Garcia with music by Robin Hoffman. In the animation, it focused on an anglerfish named Luma who, in her final moments, wanted to see the light of the sun. As I would learn from one of the workers, what was unique about this animation was its score was composed entirely within that theater.
Going left from the entrance of the building, there was an exhibit featuring Eston Bellow, a 93-year old artist and musician. The exhibit was called Gro- Brod and featured many of his works across the walls. The exhibit was meant to showcase a small sample of the thousands of drawings he has made over the course of the past 10 years. These works depicted a wide variety of things like exotic wildlife, childhood cartoon characters and even his home where he was born.
Going further towards the back of the building, there were two more exhibits. These exhibits included one where people could draw or paint works and put them up on a projector. Next to this was a photography station where people could take pictures of their shadows being projected on a large white cloth.
Next up was the Creole Cowboy exhibit by Drake Leblanc. This exhibit featured a bunch of photos and writings on the wall about the culture of Creole cowboys and going against the old Hollywood cowboy archetypes shown in movies. The whole exhibit was incredibly fascinating.
Lastly, upstairs, there was the exhibit created by the Quilter’s Guild of Acadiana, featuring a variety of quilts from them to be put on display. Going up close, you could see how beautifully crafted and detailed each of the quilts were. There were a couple of quilts that stuck out to me, such as one featuring a grid of different flowers on it and another featuring a depiction of all the different tools used to make these quilts.
Overall, this event gave many College of the Arts students the chance to hang out with one another and appreciate the art exhibits together. Many of the attendees, both teachers and students alike, seemed to enjoy what the event had to offer.