(2025)

What if we listened to understand, not to form an argument? What if we mapped Louisiana’s coast, its losses and its gains, through the voices of its people?

This Spring and Summer (2025), you can get “caught up” in the answers to those questions and much more as you participate in this community listening project. A chorus of voices will “catch” viewers in a layered dialogue about our past, present, and future as a coastal state and people.

Opening Reception: May 22, 6pm
@ Historic City Hall Arts & Culture Center!

ART-MAKING WORKSHOPS

April 21-24, 2025, 4:30-6:30pm
May 27-30, 2025, 5-7pm
August 4-7, 2025, 4:30-6:30pm
@ The Art Factory, Prien Lake Mall (next to Kohl’s), 496 W Prien Lake Rd, Lake Charles, LA 70601

Explore several topics from the Caught Up archive at this workshop: Growing up in Louisiana—how have your traditions or life altering experiences made you fall in love with this place? What if we flipped a switch to a carbon free future? Journey through the trade-offs of this topic by creating a mixed media artwork of printmaking and collage expressing your values. Day 1 & 2: traditional net-making, exploring a disappearing coastal practice and creating a texture for the next phase of work. Day 3 & 4: lithography, gelatin printmaking, and collage as we put our stories and ideas to the page.
We’d love to have you there for all four days, but reach out if you need flexibility on attendance.

COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS

April 24, 2025, 7pm
@ The Art Factory
Prien Lake Mall (next to Kohl’s)
496 W Prien Lake Rd, Lake Charles, LA 70601
May 30, 2025, 12pm
@ Cameron Main Library
512 Marshall Street, Cameron, LA 70631
August 7, 2025, 7pm
 @ Port Wonder Nature and Science Center
1011 North Lakeshore Drive, Lake Charles, LA 70601

Each community conversation will bring together three unique Caught Up “voices” in a real life conversation, sharing their stories with the local community. Activities will be facilitated for everyone present to share their story and contribute to the archive of coastal voices.

Join us this April 24 for an engaging conversation with Debra Ramirez, Jon Manns, and David Richard on how we build resilience into our communities along the working coast. Don’t miss this powerful dialogue between three community advocates, a Mossville native, a chemical engineer, and a wetlands biologist, as they explore the future of our community and coastline and the stories we need to tell. We want to hear your stories too. Your voice is crucial in this journey forward. If you’ve experienced the beauty of the Gulf South, or if you’ve seen the changes happening firsthand, we’d love you to join us and share your story. The event will be documented and archived for future use in the Caught Up project and exhibition. We hope to see you there!

EXHIBITION

May 22 – August 9, 2025, Tuesday – Saturday: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
@ Historic City Hall Arts & Culture Center
1001 Ryan Street, Lake Charles, LA

An Immersive sound and fiber installation created by Lake Charles native Victoria Bradford Styrbicki in collaboration with local artists Tracy LeMieux and Robbie Austin, and several crochet artisans in Minnesota. Conversations will unfold amidst several speakers, anchored by giant handmade fishing nets, creating a visually striking installation that envelops visitors.

Caught Up is a collaborative oral history and multidisciplinary art project centered on Coastal Louisiana.

Through deep listening and rigorous commitment to a neutral position, A House Unbuilt is exploring the many sides of this life with an industry culture, a fragile ecosystem, and tumultuous climate events that yield a unique brand of people who wear survival as a badge of honor. Together, young and old will imagine a way forward for Coastal Louisiana.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Victoria Bradford Styrbicki

COLLABORATING ARTISTS

Netmaking:
Lisa Fox, Laura Frater, Katie Kelsey, Sallie Kitzrow, Jane Leverenz, Jessica McMahon, Christina Murphy, Jeri Grotberg, Janice Salminen, Patty Tonies, Tracy Curole

Sound:
Porche Audio, KJ Cervi, Todd Mattei

Visual Art:
Tracy LeMieux, Robbie Austin

PHOTO

© A House Unbuilt

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bradford Family Founation, Stream Family Limited Partnership, New Horizon Foundation, For a Better Bayou, the Tourism Marketing Grant from Visit Lake Charles/SWLA Convention and VIsitors Bureau and a grant from the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury both facilitated by the Arts Council of SWLA, Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, Reed Mendelson, Bob Bradford, McElroy, Quirk, & Birch, L&T Health Systems, Chuck Bellon, Carol LeBeau, Ann Langford, Elite Concierge Travel, Courtney and Robert Dampf, Ruth Alliband, Dustin Granger, Jane Ebeling, Bill Nelson, and Sally Foret.