Louisiana's remarkable French heritage is evident to all. During the period of European expansion, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and English explorers navigated the waters to our continent and many other places across the globe. The French colonial empire grew to one of the largest on Earth in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, France retains the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, just after the United States, and French is an official language in 29 countries.

One cannot set foot in Louisiana without experiencing a distinct French connection, especially in family names, architecture and cuisine. Our French remnants are savored and treasured throughout the state, and especially in Acadiana. To preserve and feature the area's French roots, Lafayette City-Parish President Joey Durel joined the Association Internationale des Maires Francphones (AIMF) in 2007.

 

Mayor-President Durel welcomed the mayors of Paris, Quebec, Montreal and 25 other francophone cities to the first AIMF meeting ever held in the United States. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, president of AIMF, saluted Lafayette for joining the group and applauded efforts by the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) to keep the French language alive in the state.

 

Learn more about AIMF here.

In celebration of Navy Week, artifacts from a possible War of 1812 shipwreck (on loan from the Louisiana Division of Archaeology) are being exhibited at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve's Chalmette Battlefield April 20 to mid-May. The Mardi Gras Shipwreck was discovered 40 miles off Louisiana's coast 4,000 feet deep in the Gulf of Mexico. It may be the remains of the Rapid, which sank November 1813 during a storm while being chased by a British warship. The site was excavated and artifacts conserved by the Departments of Oceanography and Anthropology at Texas A&M University in cooperation with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Learn more about the exhibit here.

Two of the Louisiana Division of the Arts' current grant programs have mid-May deadlines. The Artist Career Advancement Grant and the Fast Track Presenters Grant are both funding opportunities that must be applied for by Friday, May 15.

 

The Artist Career Advancement Grant Program is designed to assist practicing Louisiana artists with specific development and skill-building opportunities that advance their work and careers. Applications are evaluated based on artistic quality and the potential impact on the artist's career. Grants of up to $2,000 are available for Artist Career Advancement proposals in dance, design arts, folklife, literature, media, music, theatre, and visual arts and crafts. These grants support artists at any stage in their careers to pursue projects or opportunities that further their professional development. The intent is to support activities that contribute to the individual artist's creative and professional growth. However, the artist's proposal must make a compelling case as to how the grant will substantially impact his or her artistic career. Click here for grant guidelines and to begin the grant application process.

 

The Fast Track Presenters Grant Program is designed to promote performing arts and aid in the sustenance of artistic activity in Louisiana by providing funding to Louisiana presenters to bring live performances to the state. This special initiative developed from the Gulf States Presenters Network grants up to $2,000 to Louisiana presenters to hire performing artists from Mississippi and Alabama to perform at Louisiana venues. The performing artists must be listed on the Mississippi Artist Roster or the Alabama Artist Roster. In return, the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Alabama State Council on the Arts will provide grant funding to presenters in their states to hire Louisiana performing artists. All three states' artist rosters include visual artists, educational outreach, and other disciplines. However, presenters are only eligible for grants to offset the costs of hiring eligible performing artists to perform at qualifying events. Click here to access the grant guidelines.

Dana LaFonta, director of the Louisiana Division of the Arts' Percent for Art program, moderated the Louisiana Art & Science Museum's Public Art Today: A Panel Discussion, which discussed how public art is shaping Baton Rouge today, March 31. (Pictured left to right: Bennett Rhodes, filmmaker and historian; Casey Phillips of The Walls Project; Dana LaFonta, director of the Percent for Art program; Davis Rhorer, executive director of the Baton Rouge Downtown Development District; artist Samuel Corso; and Elizabeth C. Weinstein, exhibit curator.)

The event coincided with the opening of the museum's new exhibit, Monuments & Metaphors: Art in Public Spaces, which includes Percent for Art work. The exhibit runs from March 21 to June 28. Click here to learn more.

Peggy Feehan, language education specialist for the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), spent April 1 - 21 working out of Paris and Brussels to recruit teachers for French language education in Louisiana. Feehan, along with a colleague representing the Louisiana Department of Education, interviewed 105 teachers in France and 35 in Belgium. Approximately 50 will be recruited as French teachers in Louisiana public schools for the 2015 - 16 school year. Louisiana K - 8 schools are seeking 35 French immersion teachers and 15 French as a second language teachers.

 

Every year, CODOFIL grants working visas to Foreign Associate Teachers from France and Belgium as well as Canada. Learn more about this program and the other programs of CODOFIL here.

Southern Exposure: Performing Arts of Latin America is a national initiative that provides support for the presentation of exemplary performing artists from Latin America in communities across the United States. Fee support grants are available to nonprofit presenters located anywhere in the United States and its territories that book artists for engagements taking place between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016. Learn more about the program and apply here.