Good sculptures make good neighbors. That’s Joseph Jilbert’s attitude. The artist and Katrina nomad found his way back to Louisiana last month, nearly three years after the storm, and rented a house in New Iberia’s historic district. His first act was to erect a 3,200 pound sculpture of a female form titled “Salvage.” Recycled from scrap metal, the 10 foot tall amazon is garnering quite a bit of attention, not all of it favorable.
In fact, enough people complained to City Hall that Main Street manager Jane Braud called a special meeting of the Historic District Commission, set for Tuesday, August 26. Tribby Thornton, who owns the house where the sculpture is located at 520 East Main, and who himself lives right down the street, says neighbors called him to say the sculpture was “going to bring down property values.” Thornton is amazed at the tempest the artwork has stirred up. “People do all kinds of things and nobody says a word. Then someone displays a work of art and you’ve got a riot.”
Jilbert says he’s gotten far more positive support than negative comment. “People drive by and blow their horns. There must be 10,000 people who pass it every day. They pull over to look. It’s a hell of a show. There’s going to be a ton of people at the hearing on Tuesday.”
“Salvage” is not a permanent fixture in New Iberia. She’s already been sold to a community in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Jilbert has a commission to produce more works of art for the Arkansas group. But for the next six months, she’ll be stirring up the sleepy Bayou Teche town, doing her duty for art’s sake. “Art is supposed to provoke a dialogue,” says Thornton. “I’m so inspired, I’m going to get Jilbert to teach me how to weld. I’ll have a studio in my house. I don’t know what I’m going to make, but I plan to be making art in the next year.” And Thornton has a nice big yard, on Main Street in the historic district, to display it.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
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.
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.
Good sculptures make good neighbors. That’s Joseph Jilbert’s attitude. The artist and Katrina nomad found his way back to Louisiana last month, nearly three years after the storm, and rented a house in New Iberia’s historic district. His first act was to erect a 3,200 pound sculpture of a female form titled “Salvage.” Recycled from scrap metal, the 10 foot tall amazon is garnering quite a bit of attention, not all of it favorable. 
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