Jackie Lyle, Executive Director of Performing Arts Serving Acadiana, known as "PASA," joins Discover Lafayette to discuss the organization's mission to provide local access to great performing arts.

Jackie has worked tirelessly over the past three decades to bring unique arts programming to Acadiana. She is a passionate spokesperson for the many ways art impacts our economy, from hiring people in transportation, printing, recording, and sound, live musicians, costumers, etc. "It's vital that this industry recovers. We have got to be in venues and selling tickets" to thrive and survive.

A native of Oberlin, Louisiana, Jackie moved to Lafayette at seven years of age and followed the stereotypical path of a young girl in the 70s. She had always loved dancing, playing the piano, and being a band member; while she loved the arts, Jackie says she never had the confidence to pursue a career as a professional performer so she graduated in Psychology from LSU. She never intended to work, but to be a wife and mother. However, upon returning home from college, her dad said, "Jackie, you need a job with health benefits!"

Always the dutiful daughter, Jackie followed her dad's advice and became a Clairol account executive, which gave her great sales training, and the opportunity to learn the ropes of business activities.

Her next career move landed her in a full-time job as an account executive with the Times of Acadiana, a start-up periodical. She had the opportunity to work with James Edmunds, Steve May, and Richard Baudoin, all well-known names in the publishing business in this region. Jackie credits this position with helping her understand how the government and community forces worked, and the management team constantly challenged her to do new things and spread her wings. By the end of her tenure with the Times of Acadiana, she led a sales team, had her own publication, and wrote a weekly column for the Times. She was ready to fly successfully on her own.

At that time, in the early 1980s, Lafayette's art scene was enriched by the productions presented by the Fine Arts Foundation which began in 1975. The non-profit brought in such renowned artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Rudolph Nureyev, and Gregory Hines. But with the oil and gas bust of the late 1980s, the Heymann Center closing for renovations, and the failure of the organization to pay its taxes, the Fine Arts Foundation folded and filed for bankruptcy in the late 1980s.

From this aftermath, PASA (originally known as the "Performing Arts Society of Acadiana") emerged under the helm of Jackie Lyle. Jackie looked back with pride on the impact that her work has had over the years, including having PASA hired to help with the opening of the Manship Theatre in Baton Rouge and the Grand Opera House of the South in Crowley.

"PASA's goal is to provide local access to great performing arts. That is our #1 goal. Great performing arts you can attend locally is what makes a community great. This does not mean sold-out performances or making "x" amount of money. Our mission is local access. When we are able to return to daytime performances for local students, that will be the most important thing that we can do. So many kids never have the opportunity to step foot in the Heymann. That is a transformative experience as many kids have never seen a grand piano played. We also now have a trailer that will be our local stage to bring performances into neighborhoods. As soon as cold weather ends, we'll be going into three different neighborhoods."

PASA has also commissioned new works, which means supporting the creation of original performances of song and dance by providing direction and financing. PASA's first such work involved telling the story of the settlement of ...