The Hilliard to Host a Virtual Artist Conversation To Kick Off The Fall Creative Conversations Season

LAFAYETTE, La (press release) – The Hilliard Art Museum will be kicking off our fall season of Creative Conversations on Wednesday, Sept. 16 at 6 p.m., with a conversation between Curator of Exhibitions Ben Hickey, and artist Philip Gould. This is a virtual event and will only be available online: guests can tune in on the museum’s Facebook page, Instagram page, and website.

This fall, the museum will be transitioning to virtual events to keep art lovers everywhere safe and healthy. Once a month, the museum will be offering a live, online event to compliment the other digital programming available on the our website.

Fall Season of Exhibitions

Malaika Favorite: The Alchemist

February 7, 2020 – September 19, 2020

Malaika Favorite’s found object paintings seem to burst with an energy that conveys a sense of a life lived so well it verges on the mythical or magical. Somehow, seeing her work gathered en masse strengthens this impression, as does her merging of contemporary art and folk art practices. Favorite’s synthesis of folk and contemporary is akin to alchemy; the medieval pseudo-science that strove to transform base metals into gold. Her approach is born of expressive utility that defies categorization, making it difficult to identify her work with a particular genre or media.

Signal/Form: Video Art by Woody and Steina Vasulka

July 1, 2020 – October 17, 2020

The playful and exploratory studio practices of Woody and Steina Vasulka bring to light the material qualities of video. Breaking from the narrative traditions of film-making and television, the Vasulkas engage in a collaboration with machines to create videos that escape the bounds of the artist’s eye or a camera’s lens.

Bridging the Mississippi: Spans Across the Father of Waters

August 4, 2020 – April 3, 2021

Philip Gould’s Bridging the Mississippi: Spans across the Father of Waters is an expansive account of America’s greatest waterway. The impetus for this project, bridges, frequently do not receive their due as architectural wonders although they speak to American ingenuity and can-do attitude as few other structures do. The resulting push and pull between grand narrative and singularly lived experience in these images hints at the complexity of creating a series that represents, as much as possible, the entirety of the Mississippi River.

Presenting sponsor for this exhibition is The Haynie Family Foundation. Additional support comes from Wright, Moore, DeHart, Dupuis and Hutchinson LLC Certified Public Accountants.

Acadian Brown Cotton: The Fabric of Acadiana
September 11, 2020 – June 30, 2021

This landmark exhibition is the most comprehensive project to date dedicated to the cultural traditions associated with the farming and weaving of brown cotton in Acadiana. Acadian Brown Cotton: The Fabric of Acadiana is much like the blankets on view in that it is composed of many, many threads. The exhibition tells several stories that, taken as a whole, represent an ambitious synthesis of folklore, anthropology, economics, and art history.

Support for this exhibition comes from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

About the Hilliard Art Museum

The Hilliard Art Museum operates on the campus of University of Louisiana at Lafayette and was originally founded in 1964 as the Art Center for Southwest Louisiana. Featuring a state-of-the-art modern facility that was erected in 2004, the museum houses more than 2,200 objects in its permanent collection and is the largest art exhibition space between New Orleans and Houston. The Hilliard Museum serves a wide range of educational and cultural needs by fostering cross-disciplinary intellectual discourse on campus, and throughout the region. At the core of the Hilliard’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit the art of our time, while celebrating the great diversity of Louisiana’s heritage.

Museum Hours, Admission & General Information

The Hilliard Art Museum is located at 710 East Saint Mary Boulevard, on the campus of University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Museum Hours are: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM; Wednesday, 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM; Saturday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM; closed Sunday and Monday. General Admission: $5 Adults, $4 Seniors (62+), $3 Students (5-17). FREE for Members, UL Students/Staff/Faculty with identification, and visitors under 5. For general information, please visit hillliardmuseum.org or call (337) 482-2278.