AC23 - Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge

Original Air Date: 4/9/23 - Baton Rouge Poet Laureate Jonathan Mayers spent several weeks working with middle schoolers at Helix Legal Academy introducing them to Kouri Vini, the Louisiana French Creole language, and helping them learn to express themselves through poetry. Hear about their experiences and prepare to be touched as Tierney Payne and Caden Rogers recite some of the poems they wrote.

Original Air Date: 3/19/23 - Blues Fest, one of the nation’s fastest growing blues festivals of its kind, and Sunday in the Park, a series of five Sunday afternoon outdoor concerts, are two of Baton Rouge’s favorite spring events. Kim Neustrom, Executive Director of the Baton Rouge Blues Foundation, and Arts Council Vice President Jonathan Grimes join host Pam Bordelon to talk about this year’s impressive lineup and a little history on how these two festivals came to be.

Original Air Date: 3/12/23 - This week host Pam Bordelon visits with LSU Museum of Art curator Michelle Schulte about the exciting exhibition of works by pivotal vernacular artist Thornton Dial, which opens March 30 with a 6 p.m. reception and gallery talk that includes the late artist's son Richard, as well as curator Paul Barrett, art historian Paul Arnett, cultural curator Anne Collins Smith and Schulte. More than 70 drawings, sculptures, paintings and assemblages by the pivotal vernacular artist Thornton Dial are featured in this exhibit.

Original Air Date: 2/12/23 - This week’s AC23 touches on two topics. The Cary Saurage Community Arts Center was the site of this year’s DeBose Fine Arts Festival, whose mission is dedication to excellence in areas of Fine Arts (Visual and Performing) and Classical Piano. Arts Council Education Programs Manager Marie Flowers, who served as coordinator of the festival, shares details on this year’s endeavor to provide direct access opportunities developed through multidisciplinary and intergenerational creative collaboration. We also hear from Keidrick Alford and Ciera English about the city’s new virtual art gallery, Ellemnop.Art.

Original Air Date: 4/16/23 - Baton Rouge area artist Malaika Favorite and ACGBR Philanthropy & Grants Officer Erin Douget join host Pam Bordelon to talk about Get Ready Grants, which provides up to $500 to help artists prepare potential disasters/emergencies. Malaika received one of these grants last year to upgrade the entrance to her studio, making it more accessible for visitors. As a result, she’s become a great ambassador in spreading the word on how GRGs can benefit her fellow artists.

Original Air Date: 2/19/23 - For 20 years, the Irene W. & CB Pennington Foundation has underwritten a series of concerts with the Baton Rouge Symphony featuring the likes of Itzhak Pearlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Dianna Ross, Johnny Mathis, Chris Botti, Renée Fleming, Natalie Cole, Kristin Chenoweth, Trisha Yearwood and Chicago. Maestro Emeritus Timothy Muffitt and Diane Tate, who chairs the Irene W. & C.B. Pennington Great Performers in Concert Series, join host Pam Bordelon to talk about how this series has become one of the most-anticipated events in town and the upcoming 20th anniversary performance starring GRAMMY® award-winning and international renowned violinist Hilary Hahn, who joins the orchestra in performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35.

Original Air Date: 2/5/23 - Host Pam Bordelon visits with the team behind Preserving Our Place, a photographic documentation of the effects of climate change on the native coastal communities of Chantel Comardelle, tribal executive secretary of the Jean Charles Choctaw Nation, Isle de Jean Charles, and Dennis Davis, community artist of the Native Inupiaq Village, Shishmaref, Alaska, who used their talents to create this thoughtful exhibit co-curated by Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge Visual Arts Director Lundyn Herring and Comardelle on display in the Shell Gallery at the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center.

Original Air Date: 1/8/2023 - On Jan. 12, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge celebrates its 50th anniversary at its annual MPAC gala. Host Pam Bordelon is joined by co-workers Vice President Jonathan Grimes and Philanthropy & Grants Officer Erin Douget to talk about the highlights from the past 50 years and share details on our upcoming ‘70s-themed celebration.

Original Air Date: 1/22/23 - This week, host Pam Bordelon visits with Baton Rouge native and current Phoenix, Arizona resident André DuBroc about his recent participation in the Magnolia Network’s Silos Holiday Baking Competition, where his Christmas wreath cookie came in second in some pretty stiff competition. Like any self-respecting South Louisiana native, he’s good in the kitchen. But he’s also pretty good with words – even doing a stint writing Hallmark cards.

Originally Aired: 1/1/23 - Baton Rouge native Johnny Palazzotto has become synonymous with discovering new talent and putting Louisiana artists on the international map, earning him Offbeat Magazine’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Southern University Jazz Hall of Fame in 2002. His most recent project was producing The Original King Bee Documentary, based on the life of James “Slim Harpo” Moore. The film includes never-before-heard audio interviews with Moore as well as interviews with his wife/manager Lovell Moore Casey, stepson William Gambler and members of the original King Bees band. There are also appearances by Harpo fans Dr. John, Ray Davies, Delbert McClinton and Jimmie Vaughn.