Southern Open 2009

The Acadiana Center for the Arts is pleased to present Southern Open 2009, a competitive visual arts exhibition showcasing the talents of artists residing in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

An open call-to-artists was distributed to the gulf coast artistic community inviting artwork submissions. Southern Open 2009 artists are comprised of emerging, mid-career and master artists from across the gulf south using a wide range of artwork media. Artists using any type of visual media including two-dimensional paintings and drawings, photography, video, sculpture and installations were eligible for Southern Open 2009.  227 artists submitted 900 artworks for consideration. From these submissions, Eleanor Heartney chose 72 works of art created by 59 artists. This exhibition marks the third annual presentation of the Southern Open at the Acadiana Center for the Arts.

The artistic communities spread along the gulf coast region share a comparable “sense of place” due to the environmental and cultural similarities, which are intrinsically reflected in each individual’s artwork. The mission of the Southern Open exhibition series is to bring together artwork that visually describes the challenges and opportunities associated with living on the gulf coast as presented from multiple regional perspectives.

The goals for the Southern Open series are to provide artists from across the gulf south an opportunity to create and present new works, extend their audience base and network with other artists from across the region, expand the local audience’s knowledge of the visual wealth of the gulf south by exhibiting and cataloging artwork of the highest quality and encourage the collecting of southern art to enrich the cultural economy across the region.

This year many of the artworks focus on the physical environment of the gulf coast. The separation of people from the land, the disappearing wetlands, architecture preserved and razed, the current economic times we find ourselves in and how that is effecting our homes and our communities are present issues in the work.

I would like to thank all of the gulf coast artists who participated in this exhibition process. Without their support, the Southern Open series would not be possible. I would also like to thank Eleanor Heartney for her commitment to the art of the south and her enthusiasm for this project. Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to the staff and board members of the AcA. The people that make up this organization are invaluable contributors to the quality of life in this community.

Rose M. Courville, Curator of Exhibitions

**artist list available upon request**