Building Cultural Bridges
Louisiana
Division of the Arts
(state
arts agency)
Baton
Rouge, Louisiana
Mission
The
arts are an essential and unique part of life in Louisiana
to which each citizen has a right. The Louisiana Division
of the Arts in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council
is the catalyst for participation, education, development,
and promotion of excellence
in
the arts. It is the responsibility of the Division to support
established arts institutions, nurture both emerging arts
organizations and our overall cultural economy, assist individual
artists, encourage the expansion of audiences, and stimulate
public participation in the arts in Louisiana.
New
Populations
Reaching
out to and documenting the traditional arts and artists of
Louisiana’s immigrant and refugee communities.
Community
Context
Louisiana
is home to significant numbers of people from Vietnam, Honduras,
Mexico, Cuba, India, China, Taiwan, Palestine and the Middle
East, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Korea, El Salvador,
Japan, Columbia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Laos, and Thailand. In
addition, Louisiana is home to trans-national cultural groups,
such as the Garifuna and Mayans. Most immigrant and refugee
communities are in urban areas and concentrated in southeast
Louisiana (the greater New Orleans and greater Baton Rouge
areas). Also, there are newcomer communities (mainly Mexican)
in rural areas and small towns.
New
Populations
The
New Populations Project is an initiative of the Louisiana
Division of the Arts Folklife Program to reach out to our
state's immigrant and refugee communities. The goal is to
address an underserved sector within the cultural economy
and draw them into the arts network. Because this is an ambitious
project, our priority is on the larger, more concentrated
communities with long-term residence in Louisiana rather than
university students or those who have most recently arrived.
Some cultural groups have come to Louisiana in successive
waves—some up to seven generations—replenishing ties to the
home country. This project focuses on the most recent arrivals
that include foreign-born members.
Our
strategy is to reach out to these communities by documenting
their traditions. Generally, documentation focuses on folk
traditions rather than classical or popular art forms, although
we recognize that some classical or popular art forms take
on new meanings in a diaspora setting.
We
ask communities and individuals how they maintain their home
culture here in Louisiana. We ask: Do you make crafts, music,
or foods that are traditional in your culture? Do you celebrate
holidays that are important to your culture? Do you work at
traditional occupations? Fieldworkers document community traditions,
art forms, and events and then provide essays and photographs
to be added to the Folklife
in Louisiana website, www.louisianafolklife.org
. Fieldworkers submit a field
report on their findings.
As
of January 2008, we have received reports on ten different
communities and an additional eleven are in process. New
Populations—Issues That Will Impact Your Strategies
is a fieldwork framework used by the New Populations project
in its research with newcomer communities. It includes a report
on what the New Populations project has revealed about these
issues in Louisiana. Visit the New Populations website to
find these materials.
Following
documentation and reporting, the next phase in the New Populations
project is to assist these communities in developing strategies
to implement their own priorities, such as creating cultural
centers, developing programming and exhibits, and supporting
their artists. So far, this has been an effective statewide
strategy to open dialogue with several groups simultaneously
and offer concrete strategies to help them achieve their goals.
The  Vietnamese
community in New Orleans had been planning a cultural center
and now plans to request arts funding to start a more formal
planning process. The Muslim community in Baton Rouge is investigating
the possibility of creating an exhibit on the cultures represented
in their community. The Laotian community near New Iberia
plans to build a traditional structure, which will serve as
a cultural center. While each of these communities likely
would have proceeded without our assistance, they now have
access to additional resources to facilitate planning and
implementation.
Learn
more
Visit
www.louisianafolklife.org/NewPopulations/
to find documentation of
the New Populations project. The website includes a list of
completed community reports and community fieldwork projects
in progress, additional articles and essays about Louisiana’s
traditional arts and cultures, research strategies, and other
folklife resources.
Contact
Maida
Owens
Louisiana
Division of the Arts Folklife Program
PO
Box 44247
Baton
Rouge, LA 70804
225.342.8178
folklife(at)crt.state.la.us
Photos
Lanexang
Village, the Laotian community near New Iberia, Louisiana,
celebrates Songkran or Laotian New Year with a parade
and dance competition. Photo, Natthinee Khot-asa Jones, courtesy
of Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program.
The
Vietnamese community in New Orleans East celebrates New Year
with a Dragon Dance performance and the Laughing Buddha. Photo:
Mark Sindler.
Photos courtesy
of the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program.
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