BP’s latest act of restitution is a great windfall for the Paul and Lulu Hilliard University Art Museum here in Lafayette. The company owns a prestigious collection of artwork by southwest Louisiana artists, which hung in the Lafayette office of Atlantic Richfield Co. BP bought ARCO in 2000.
BP is in the process of closing their Lafayette office. In light of the environmental insult to the state, rather than selling the collection, BP chose to respond with a gift of great beauty to the Lafayette community.
The artwork, which was collected in the 1980s, includes paintings, drawings, and prints from local contemporary artists like Janet Fish, Robert Gordy, Ida Kohlmeyer, Elemore Morgan Jr., Jesse Poimboeuf and Robert Warrens. The museum plans to preserve the artwork in its permanent collection and utilize in future exhibitions. Selections from the ARCO collection have previously been on display in the University Art Museum in 1992.
“This is a tremendous addition to our permanent collection,” says Mark Tullos, director of the Hilliard Museum. “Our collections are held in trust for this community and the people of the state of Louisiana and we deeply appreciate this most generous gift from British Petroleum.”
There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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