Visitors were met with a surprise last year at the annual Art Melt downtown. Usually, the juried art show is surrounded by plenty of activity: tents outside filled with artists and makers, a stage for live bands, and poets, dancers and other performers bringing more entertainment on the ground floor of the Capitol Park Museum.
But in 2017, Art Melt’s organizers decided to focus solely on the exhibit. Forum 35, the young professionals group behind the event, held its usual preview party on a Friday night in July to announce the winners. And while the exhibit was open to the public the following day, the full-day festival tied to it had been eliminated.
“We felt that there were times when it really took away from the core purpose of it,” then-event chair Kylee Lewis told 225 last year. “So we’re trying to make sure we elevate that and stick to our core focus.”
But fast-forward a year later, and the full two-day event is back on.
Current Art Melt co-chair Jessica Trepagnier says feedback from attendees last year changed their minds. “Everyone said the festival aspect was really missed,” she says. “We were really taking that into consideration and realizing what a big part of the community this is, especially in the summer.”
Indeed, July isn’t the most jam-packed month for cultural events in Baton Rouge, which makes it prime for a street party paired with an art exhibit in the glorious air conditioning.
Artists from across the state submitted around 290 pieces this year, which were then scrutinized by three jurors for the top awards and inclusion in the final exhibit.
The jurors include Allison K. Young of the New Orleans Museum of Art; Mattie Codling of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi; and Lydia Gordon of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
The ticketed preview party at the Capitol Park Museum will include live music, food and a bar as the winners are announced. In celebration of its 15th anniversary, the night will also serve to recognize some of the people who helped start Art Melt.
Trepagnier says at the free Saturday public opening, attendees can also expect plenty of food vendors, an arts market and a cultural stage. The show will remain on exhibit in the museum for six weeks afterward.
“It’s always such a great event,” she says. “People don’t often realize how vast our arts community is, and this provides an opportunity to showcase that and really put it at the forefront of people’s minds in Baton Rouge.”
CHECK IT OUT
July 20: Art Melt’s ticketed preview party, 7-10 p.m. at the Capitol Park Museum. July 21: The free public opening, 4-9 p.m., with events in and around the museum. The exhibit will be on view at the museum until the end of August. Find out more at forum35.org.
This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of 225 Magazine.
