The Office of the Lt. Governor, the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, and the Office of Cultural Development announced the first annual Louisiana Culture Awards.  The focus of this awards program is to recognize individuals and organizations making outstanding contributions to the cultural industries in Louisiana. This award highlights the best in Louisiana and is an opportunity to showcase to the nation what makes Louisiana’s cultural economy soar. 

The St. Tammany Parish Chambers’ Joint Cultural Economy Committee was honored to be the recipient of this award.  The committee’s program of work consisted of four subcommittees:  Awareness & Outreach, Coalition Building, Business Support and Public Policy.  The committee serves as a pipeline effort to create awareness, and encourage artists, musicians and persons who support the cultural economy to join the Chambers through services offered to help businesses succeed.  It was formed based on input from Chamber membership businesses, along with cultural organizations to promote cultural economy throughout the parish through Chamber events.  The joint committee’s mission is to facilitate growth, development and increased awareness of the cultural economy and its impact by focusing on coalition building, public policy, business support, arts education and outreach.  We are so proud of this collaborative effort between the East and West Chambers. 

The support of the City of Slidell Cultural and Public Affairs Department in developing Cultural Events for East St. Tammany is amazing.  Cultural events have a significant impact on the quality of life in the community.  The collaborative efforts of the Slidell Cultural & Public Affairs Department with the Chamber of Commerce, the local Art Leagues, the local Theaters, Art and Pottery Businesses, just to name a few, goes above and beyond the expected involvement of a City Department.  The partnership with the Chamber of Commerce, to enhance the Bayou Jam Halloween Bash with thirty (30) businesses providing candy and treats for safe trick or treating for families is one example of how Slidell Cultural and Public Affairs brings the businesses of the region together with cultural events.

As the Chamber of Commerce focuses on the quality of life being an important issue to nurture the businesses we represent and to bring new businesses into our region, the Cultural & Public Affairs Department creates an excellent opportunity for the chamber to promote these events to tourists, business executives, employees and future business leaders of St. Tammany Parish.

 For the past three years, together with the Chamber of Commerce, Junior Auxiliary of Slidell, Slidell Art League, local schools, and several other businesses, the Slidell Cultural & Public Affairs has held a Cultural Extravaganza promoting the cultural economy, not only in our region, but the entire state of Louisiana.  For 2009, the event has become so popular that a daytime and an evening event was held.  Local pottery businesses became involved and community leaders produced “art” of their own which was auctioned off at one of the events to provide funds for a citywide mural project.  The creative ventures Slidell Cultural & Public Affairs develop through their department are endless in bringing opportunities not only to the citizens of the parish, but help the businesses promote themselves.  As a result of these events, awareness of the arts has grown throughout the region.

 The turnouts for the Slidell Cultural & Public Affairs events speak volumes about community support.  Every year, Arts Evening draws crowds of about 5,000.  Bayou Jam concerts have attracted crowds of up to 11,000, and Some Enchanted Evening with the LPO brings in crowds of up to 11,000 each year—a number equal to 35% of the city’s population.  The support of local commerce is also evident as demonstrated by the many businesses that have come on board as cultural sponsors to indicate their commitment to the arts and our quality of life building partnerships with the Slidell Cultural & Public Affairs on a yearly basis in support of the community cultural events.  For information on sponsoring the Cultural Arts, please contact Kim Bergeron at 985-646-4375.