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Celebrate spring at the Hilliard with an elegant afternoon on the Hilliard’s front lawn. Curated baskets of wine, cheese, and delectable canapés will be served with live music. Funds raised from PICNIC will directly support the museum's collection, exhibition, and education programs. For general inquiries and ticket purchase support, please contact Kyra Cole at kyra.cole@louisiana.edu or (337) 482-2278. For sponsorship inquiries, please contact Kiki Frayard at (337) 298-2709.
Drake LeBlanc is a filmmaker and media artist from Lafayette, Louisiana. Drake is the Founder and Creative Director of Above the Beyond, a multi-media production company responsible for creating disruptive, thought-provoking film and digital content. Drake also co-founded Téle- Louisiane, a multi-lingual media platform that aims to breathe new life into Louisiana’s languages, cultures and people.
Herb Roe was born and spent his childhood in the Appalachian regions of Southern Ohio and Northeastern Kentucky. In 1992 he received a scholarship to the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio and attended his freshman year there. In the summer of 1993, he met the Louisiana mural artist Robert Dafford. He subsequently apprenticed to and worked for Dafford for 15 years on mural projects throughout the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys. As a Dafford Muralist, Roe specialized in large scale, long term historical mural projects, often connected with local Chambers of Commerce, Tourism Bureaus and Downtown Development Agencies. Many of these projects took between 5 and 10 years to complete and ranged from 1 to 50 murals in each town. In 2007 Roe began to pursue a career as a fine artist, specializing in oil paintings depicting the history and culture of his adopted home in South Louisianas Acadiana region. His most recent series of works explores his childhood home in Appalachian eastern Kentucky and southern Ohio and adulthood traveling and working in the southern US.
John "Pudd" Sharp joined the Center staff in 2009, becoming Assistant Director for Research in 2012. An Alabama native, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Auburn University and a Master of Science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is a documentary filmmaker and folklorist. Sharp has implemented several field research projects, serves as the primary contact for the Center for Louisiana Studies Archives, writes grants, works with film and video restoration and digitization, and hosts Center for Louisiana Studies events. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Louisiana Folklife Commission since 2016 and served as Treasurer of the Louisiana Folklore Society from 2011 until 2022.
Jane Vidrine, a Grammy-nominated musician, arts administrator, music educator, and folklorist, is the inaugural director of the Louisiana Music Museum. With a long and diverse career in teaching, curriculum creation, museum curating, and cultural program development, Vidrine brings a wealth of experience and a profound passion for Louisiana’s cultural heritage to this esteemed position.