Last weekend in Baton Rouge

Thoughts on the cultural growth of the Capital City

Living in Baton Rouge, we often hear about the excess of culture in surrounding cities like New Orleans or Lafayette. But, last weekend was an example of how amazing the Capital City’s own cultural output can be. The Highlander Music Festival, Highland Nights, Prospect.3+BR’s opening weekend downtown and its corresponding mini-film festival at Manship Theatre took over the city, showing off local talents as well as bringing art, music and film to new, bigger crowds. 225 spoke with some of the participants and organizers of those events to get their reaction to a weekend that upped the ante of quality cultural opportunities in Baton Rouge.

Ashley Monaghan is the singer of Ship of Fools, a local band that performed at Friday night’s Highlander Music Festival and The Walls Project’s “Just a Taste” arts and music showcase Saturday: “[The Highlander Music Festival] set off the weekend with eight hours of music. It was really special. Performing inside was so much more intimate, and you felt connected to everyone. Saturday, [Ship of Fools] felt super blessed and honored to be a part of the music portion of Prospect.3+BR. The art on the fourth floor was overwhelming. There were so many different rooms … you would go in and find these little worlds in their own spaces. This weekend was an awesome way to push Baton Rouge’s talent and be like ‘Hey we’re here, too, and we have amazing talent.’ We showed everybody that.”

Rodneyna Hart is co-curator of Prospect.3+BR’s Healthcare Gallery 2.0 on the fourth floor of the Chase Tower South: “[The opening of Prospect.3+BR] was fantastic. It was everything that I knew that Baton Rouge could be. I grew up here, and the arts are very important to me. What we offered was a tour de force that could be on par with anything else in connection with this exhibition in New Orleans. It was exciting, and the outpouring of support was terrific. Every step of the way in this exhibition, we’ve had people say, ‘This is wonderful,’ and ‘How do we get involved?’ If we had that participation and interest on a regular basis, we can be this great art Mecca that we know we can be.”

Matthew Schwartz is the singer/guitarist of Pacifico, a band that debuted a new music video during Manship Theatre’s mini-film festival Sunday (pictured left). Schwartz also helped curate “Just a Taste” Saturday: “Lately, the area’s talent and the support of that talent seems to be growing exponentially. It feels amazing to have been able to meet these people and to be a part of this. But also, the talent doesn’t have egos. They are willing to work together for the greater good for making this city a burgeoning arts city. What I hope to see in the future is that this fire that has been lit will continue to grow, as long as we fan the flames and work together to keep growing.”

Katie Pfohl is LSU Museum of Art’s curator. The museum raised money through Kickstarter for the installation, “Dwelling,” which debuted as part of Prospect.3+BR: “I’m impressed with the way Baton Rouge turned out for art. People from across town and the community funded this entire installation. When we did this contest where local artists could submit proposals, as someone new to town, I had no idea what to expect about quality and quantity, but I was floored by the proposals. To me, it says something positive about the community support and the quality of art in this town that we pulled something off so quickly and successfully. For Baton Rouge to pull off this many projects across the city is incredible. I had multiple people coming up throughout the weekend, asking, ‘Dare I say that Baton Rouge is cool?’ This is just the start … we can come together as an arts community to continue to do amazing things like this.”

Caroline Schaff is a local singer-songwriter who performed at Friday night’s Highlander Music Festival and Saturday’s “Just a Taste” arts and music showcase: “I felt really honored to partake in both of [the events] and to perform alongside so many talented musicians who I’ve admired for so long. It’s really cool that the community is so supportive of the arts scene here. It was important for me to be involved [in The Highlander] because it was one of the first places I ever performed. [Highland Coffees has] done a lot for the arts scene, providing a platform for up-and-coming artists like me. We’ve got a helluva lot of culture down here. I feel like this weekend, people were like, ‘Wow, Baton Rouge has got something special.'”

Raina Wirta is the executive director of Elevator Projects and organizer/coordinator of Prospect.3+Baton Rouge: “I thought this weekend was very successful. We had a really great response from people who support the arts and from people who had just seen the press and were excited to see something new. Overall, the participants were really happy and very proud to be a part of something like this as well. [For stuff like this to continue,] we need to start getting consistent fiscal support … When it comes down to it, we want to be able to pay the artists and sell their work. We want to contribute back to the creative economy. That support needs to come from the community in which we’re building this out of to sustain what we’re doing.”

Did you attend some of the events around Baton Rouge last weekend? What were your thoughts on what you saw? Share with us in the comments below.

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