Caught Up

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 that explores coastal stories of loss and resilience, land and water, industry and conservation. The critical capacity of art will inspire and engage young and old to be part of the solution. 

Make it

Caught Up’s gallery program is supported by (3) four day-long Art-Making Workshops using traditional net-making as a texture and tool in a storytelling process with gelatin printmaking. These workshops will take place at the Art Factory and co-directed by Styrbicki and LeMieux. Styrbicki will lead the netmaking portion of the workshop, and has acquired expertise in traditional net-making from relatives in Lafourche Parish who still weave their own fishing nets, and together with other artisans, has crafted over 10 unique and oversized fiber pieces for the exhibition.

Caught Up will also bring the voices of the installation out of the gallery and into real life with our Community Conversation series, engaging the broader public with coastal Louisiana's heritage & environmental issues. Situated in a community shaped by the petrochemical industry & new liquid natural gas developments, creating this project in Southwest Louisiana is central to the project’s intent, linking past & present. Styrbicki will facilitate these conversations, which will take place April 24, May 30, and August 7. Her practice centers on whole-body listening and public engagement which has helped her facilitate the listening sessions leading to the collection of voices in the gallery as well as other projects such as Relay of Voices. 

This entire project, from exhibition, workshops, and conversations, is intended to plant a seed: how can we be “for” something instead of against things. How can we step out of our entrenched positions and come together to imagine a more sustainable future for our land, water, wildlife, and people. 

Workshops

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.

Workshop dates:

  • APRIL 21-24 4:30-6:30pm

  • MAY 27-30 5-7pm

  • AUGUST 4-7 4:30-6:30pm

  • These workshops are free to attend but spaces are limited. We want the participants to have the best experience so our classes are limited to 15.

  • The workshops are designed for you to attend one workshop but all four days would be best. If you cannot attend each day, let us know so that we can explore other arrangements.

  • Short answer is no, you do not need to have any experience! You will be shown how to make a net then use it in an art project.

  • Most everyone is welcome and it would be a great opportunity for families to participate but it is most suitable for children 10 and up that would be accompanied by a parent.