Tegan Wendland, WRKF

June 13, 2011

Baton Rouge, LA

Two local groups want Baton Rouge residents to get out and socialize this week while supporting local art.

The Community Fund for the Arts has teamed up with the Perkins Historic Merchants District to hold a special fundraiser on Thursday called Eat for the Arts.

WRKF's Tegan Wendland talked with CFA campaign Director Fairleigh Cook Jackson about why supporting the arts is important.

Listen to the interview

WENDLAND: Can you give our listeners a brief overview of what the CFA is and what it does?

JACKSON: Of course. The CFA is a united fundraising campaign. We've been in Baton Rouge for 26 years now and basically a lot of community leaders and business leaders saw a need for a united fundraising campaign to support arts and culture in Baton Rouge. It's based on a United Way model, so we have, at this point, 14 member organizations - everything from performance arts to visual art to arts and culture and history and each of these member organizations receives funding based on their budget size and this funding is available for them to use in any way they see fit. So, where most funding from, say foundations or the state or federal funding has to be applied in certain programmatic ways, CFA funds can pay for anything they need - costumes, to keep the lights on, basic administrative fees - so it's quite valuable to all of our organizations and they're quite worthy.

WENDLAND: How do you decide what kinds of arts you're going to focus on?

JACKSON: It does not focus on a particular art form and I think that benefits us all - it benefits the organizations, it benefits us as constituents of the arts, and it benefits Baton Rouge in general. For example we obviously support some of the more classical and formal art forms such as our very successful and popular ballet here and town, and we have a wonderful symphony. So those kinds of art organizations that you would think of immediately when you think of an arts organization. However, we also fund Friends of Magnolia Mound and Foundation for Historical Louisiana, and those are organizations that are preserving arts and culture in Baton Rouge - maybe not through performance and visual art - but through history and the rich heritage here in Baton Rouge. We also support Of Moving Colors, which is a much more, what you would call a "fringe organization" with modern and real creativity at the helm there.

WENDLAND: What will the event entail?

JACKSON: The fun thing about it is that it's a great opportunity to explore and experience all of the CFA member organizations in walkable atmosphere with lots of good food, drinks and entertainment, and it's all put on by local, Baton Rouge residents, business owners, dancers, performers, musicians - so I think that, all around, it's just going to be a celebration of where we are. The businesses have actually partnered with different restaurants around town and catering businesses around town to provide eats for the event. So, for example, Enoteca Marcello's will be at Noelie Harmon providing food at that location - Mestizo's will be at Loft 3H and so on and so forth.

WENDLAND: And this is the first time you've done an event like this?

JACKSON: First time.

WENDLAND: Are you hoping to make it annual?

JACKSON: We would love to. If they are gracious enough to offer this to us again next year we would love the opportunity.

WENDLAND: How would you describe the arts culture here in Baton Rouge and why do you think it's so important?

JACKSON: I would describe it as diverse with a lot of potential and maybe under-utilized by a lot of residents. I think there's a lot going on and it's sometimes overwhelming to stay on top of what's happening and a lot of times things can kind of slide by without us knowing they're happening but there's such a vibrant scene here, and this goes beyond CFA member organizations. Obviously I'm going to highlight those organizations that I serve, but there's so much happening - from Uncommon Thread - I mean there's just wonderful organizations and organizations that are making things happen and I think we're going in a great direction and that everybody is becoming more open and understanding of the importance of the arts in our area.

WENDLAND: Well, thanks so much for coming in.

JACKSON: Thank you so much, Tegan.

CFA provides support to 14 arts organizations in the city -WRKF is one of them.

Eat for the Arts
Thursday, June 16
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Perkins Road Historic Merchants District (Perkins Road)
Pre-sale tickets are $30, $35 at the door.