Posts Tagged ‘downtown’

The Downtown Development District, a blueprint for the revitalization of downtown funded by the city government, received recognition by the International Downtown Association. The 2009 Award of Distinction in Downtown Leadership and Management was given to the DDD for their work on the formation and creation of measures for the Arts and Entertainment district, which was one of 77 projects considered for the award.

The Downtown Baton Rouge Arts & Entertainment District (the District) is the latest example of the Downtown Development District’s (DDD) successful and innovative approach to downtown leadership and management. Officially established in 2008, this 15 block, mixed-use residential area is anchored by historic neighborhoods and buildings, North Boulevard Town Square, Capitol Park and the majestic banks of the Mississippi Riverfront. With a growing number of restaurants, galleries, shops and live entertainment venues, the District brings together downtown visitors, workers, and residents for a variety of culturally inspired activities. You can view the proposal submitted at this link.

Since its inception in 1987, the DDD has worked tirelessly to transform downtown Baton Rouge, driving extensive community planning processes and providing services to support $2.36 billion of public and private projects. In the coming years it will continue building on these successes by further activating development, enhancing the pedestrian experience and implementing a comprehensive greening program. As the primary agency responsible for executing the Plan Baton Rouge II master plan, the DDD will continue playing a central role in shaping and energizing downtown.

Baton Rouge, my home city and an entity that associate much of my personal identity with, is defined by many things: strong historical roots, deep culture, fantastic food, good people, championship sports, and hot women. However, young and inspiring graphic designers in the area want to add one more thing to this definition: design.

If you think of great cities of design, you’ll probably conjure up facades from New York or San Francisco, or if you’re thinking digitally, even Austin. These are the great champions of design in America because they’ve been the epicenter of revolution in the design-related industries. And they’ve become this way because they were open to change, shrugging off any impeding constrictions and letting the inspiration flow.

But for many decades, Baton Rouge just hasn’t been that city of change, of innovation to become an epicenter of any movement, even localized. To imagine our city as a vessel of creativity and a place recognized for its quarry of talent was just a dream. A dream that under the direction of Mayor-President Kip Holden is finally seeing the light of day.

Downtown—the heart of our city—is new and improved after millions have been poured into, and so much changed has occurred in a short eight years that it’s awe-inspiring to think of where we’ll be in another eight. Our city is the home to great art shows and fantastic celebrations, is beautiful, and even the source of inspiration for other cities to affect their own transformation.

It seems that finally—finally—we have the necessary prerequisites to become such a city of design. And now LSU is pumping out fantastic designers in astounding rates, and the local design studios in Baton Rouge are becoming so successful that they’re attracting awesome designers to the area at a rapid pace, so we might actually be poised to make it.

But, is it going to happen?

Last week, a cavalcade of local designers showed up at Chelsea’s Café just beneath the overpass to discuss the future of Baton Rouge as the next great city of design. The Baton Rouge Design Alliance’s inaugural meeting was by all means a success, with lots of young talent all huddled in a back corner of the restaurant for some good food and good networking.

Amongst the bevy of discussed topics, the transformation of Baton Rouge into the next great city of design was certainly one of them, and many members of the congregation expressed strong feelings that in the next few years, Baton Rouge could become the home of the next generation of design. “Baton Rouge has the capacity to become a city with great design on every corner and we’re here to make a connection with other designers and artists to give us all of the outlets to succeed,” said BRDA co-founder, Blake Cason.

With such talent, passion, and youth working on this, who knows what’s ahead for Baton Rouge?

(Here’s a hint: it’s going to happen.)

To find out more about the BRDA, you can connect them via Twitter.

This is the view straight down Forth Street from the observation deck of the State Capitol. I’m glad we have more trees than buildings in Baton Rouge. Hazy skies, brown water, and blue tarps are a familiar sight around here.

This is a 5 shot panorama. Canon 20D & Canon EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM lens. ISO 100, 17mm, f/10, 1/200

Continue reading “Baton Rouge Photos” →

Recently officials from Jackson, Mississippi visited downtown Baton Rouge to get inspiration for their own downtown revitalization effort. From all reports, the trip was a success and the Jacksonians were very excited about the advice they received. This is a huge affirmation for our officials and the great job they’ve been doing downtown. The Downtown Development District posted a pdf of the articles that ran in the local Jackson papers about the visit, including an editorial on what it means for Jackson. It’s a great piece to read and really great to see how Baton Rouge is receiving attention—looks like we’re on the up and up!

Read the PDF here →

Art Melt is a juried art show that occurs every year in downtown Baton Rouge. Showcasing Louisiana’s 18+ artists, Art Melt is an opportunity for these young budding artists to showcase their talents at a statewide level. Art Melt is this Friday, July 10 from 6:30 PM – 10:00 PM. The event is free and open to the public and usually has attendance of several thousand. This year, it’s in the Brunner Gallery located in the Shaw Center for the Arts. Selected works of Art Melt will continue to be on display through July 20 in the Brunner Gallery. Aside from visual arts, there are several musical groups lined up to perform, including: Baton Rouge Symphony, Opera Louisiane, Michael Foster Project, DJ OttO and others. There’s also dance and culinary productions scheduled.

I’ll be there, so if you’re headed out keep an eye out for me.

You can read more on the Art Melt web site →

The Red Stick International Animation Festival wrapped up last week. It was a great event, and we’re so lucky to have this kind of thing in Baton Rouge.

Held at the Shaw Center, Red Stick is a four-day event that brings talented professionals from the animation, video game and film industry to our great capital city.

One of the biggest events for me was the portfolio review held by Disney representatives. I had the honor of meeting Max Howard, a fascinating man who worked on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “The Iron Giant.” Disney also treated the festival with an exclusive preview of their next animated film, “The Princess and the Frog”. This new film is so special because it will be Disney’s first hand drawn 2d film in nine years.

The Red Stick festival also offered many fun and interesting workshops. Among the many workshops, attendees could learn how to do stop motion animation, draw dinosaurs, learn the intricacies of drawing animal anatomy, even do motion capture for video games. I attended workshops dedicated to character design and advanced inking techniques. The Baton Rouge Cartoonist Society was at the festival in full force. They held two workshops, as well as providing children with coloring books, which the BRCS did the artwork for.

I sat in several lectures, one of which was titled The Biology of “Bolt”. Stuart Sumida, a professor of biology for California State University –San Bernardino explained how he consulted with Disney on their 2008 CG film “Bolt”. Sumida showed us how he created skeletal structures and musculature for the film’s animal stars. He explained how the origins of Bolt lead to technical issues with the characters elbows and knees. He even showed us diagrams he created for the animators to show which paw would fall when on quadruped animals during a walk, trot and a gallop. Of all the lectures I attended during the festival, this one was the most interesting!

Red Stick is an amazing event, and I’m so grateful we have this event in our own backyard. It is a great opportunity to meet and network with industry professionals and other folks just trying to get into the business. At Red Stick, there’s an aura of excitement that you can feel right as you come through the door. Everyone there is there to celebrate animation and the great things it can do. I’m going back next year; I hope to see you there.

Old State Capitol

Please provide a link back to this post and to EthanKillett.com when referring to this strip.

The Red Stick Animation Festival, an international animation convention, is going on right now in downtown Baton Rouge. A highly acclaimed affair, it frequently brings in top talent to showcase. Just announced, Disney is previewing their latest feature “The Princess and the Frog” this Friday, April 24, at 5:30 p.m. in the Manship Theatre, which is downtown in the Shaw Center.

The movie is set in New Orleans and an animator from the studio will be there to introduce the exclusive preview. The movie is set to be released this Thanksgiving. Following the preview, Disney is showing “Bolt,” an animated feature that premiered last year. What’s interesting is that this marks Disney’s return to 2D animation. The animator who’ll be speaking also worked on “The Lion King,” which is one of my favorite childhood movies. I’m personally excited to see where this’ll lead Disney in the future. We’ve been lacking good 2D movies as of late (of course, Pixar has produced enough amazing 3D ones).

The festival is hosting a “princess ball” in anticipation of the showing, which starts at 7pm at the Old State Capital downtown.

The events are all apparently free and open to the public. However, a “Red Pass” is required to participate. Unfortunately, the site seems to be down at the moment. We’ve contacted the Festival to get more information.

[Update: I just contacted the officials and they say that you can register onsite even though the site is down. And it is, as of right now.]
[Yet another update: The site is now fixed. I recommend registering before attending.]

More information about the festival can be found at their web site.

Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts will be traveling to Baton Rouge next week, April 28th, to host its annual Arts Gala at the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts in downtown. The show begins at 7pm and it’s free and open to the public—all are invited to attend! The students will be performing dance pieces, comedy sketches, musical ensembles and more. Plus, alumnus Josh Tickell will be showing his documentary “Fuel,” an Audience Choice Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The full program is as follows:

• Dance piece #1: City at Night (Impulse Dance Company – Ali Arsement, Autumn Billings, Meagan Evans, Ashlei McDonald, Stephanie Michot, Anna Tan)
• “Behind the Scenes” Josh Callendret filmmaker
• Solo Dance Piece #2: “A Path of Her Own” Anna Tan
• Segment from “Greater Tuna” Mason Joiner and Kyle Richard
• Dance piece #3: “Fives By Six” (Impulse Dance Company)
• Josh Tickell video appearance
• Instrumental music trio (Trio in A minor, Opus 188) Dylan Blanchard, Phillip Larroque, and Dr. Charles Jones
• Poetry Recitation: “Dulce Et Decorum Est” Dylan Staley (Poetry Out Loud state competition 3rd place winner)
• Instrumental music duo “Idyll” Susannah Robichaux and Dr. Charles Jones
• Poetry Recitation: “Mrs Kirkorian” Dylan Staley
• Vocal Performance of “Nancy Hanks” by Gabby Hildestad
• Vocal Performance of “The Wizard and I” from Wicked by Stephanie Boyd
• Finale: Piano: Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2 “Tempest” Performed by Anna Tan

In addition, pieces from the school’s visual arts students will also be on display, including sculpture, ceramics, watercolors, and pen and ink drawings.

More information is available on the LSMSA web site.

I graduated from LSMSA, which means I can personally vouch for the students. Their art is going to be incredibile. In fact, I’ve seen some of it already and it’s just superb. If you’re a patron of the arts, I highly recommend this event, oh, and it’s free, too. Can’t go wrong there.

This Sunday, April 19, the 20th Annual Louisiana Earth Day will be taking place downtown from 12:00pm – 8:30pm. This year’s theme is “Think Globally, Act Locally.” Earth Day is traditionally educational and a good local family event. Educational and children activities are scheduled until 5:00 pm. This year there is a focus on sustainability with “Going Green in Red Stick” specials. Here’s some of what you can look forward to:

Louisiana Earth Day’s 20-year anniversary highlights include the wetlands tent, sustainable Louisiana pavilion, recycling fair, earth market, international pavilion, natural health and healing, Louisiana and Native American culture, earth friendly habitat, agricultural exhibits and petting zoo, and nature and your neighborhood.

Live musical entertainment from Cowboy Mouth, Tab Benoit, Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie, and Chris LeBlanc is scheduled on two stages all day.

As a reminder, Earth Day doesn’t allow any pets or coolers and parking is available in the City Garage on St. Louis street for $5.