Students stopped North Gate Tavern on Monday night to unwind with friends and indulge their taste buds with the bar’s most popular export of the evening — art.
Drip! Art Show, an exhibit that also functioned as a marketplace for local artists, displayed artists’ work inside the dining area and outside on the rustic patio.
Dusty Cooper, North Gate Tavern owner and event organizer, collaborated with others to hold the first Drip! show in May of last year. Cooper said she stopped holding the once-a-month art events about four months ago due to a lack of participation and repetitive artwork.
“We stopped to work out some changes and generate new interest for the show,” Cooper said.
Cooper said she is excited about the new energy surrounding the recently resumed exhibit.
“Before, we would feature 10 to 12 artists per show,” Cooper said. “We’ve seen three times as many entries for this first show back.”
Cooper credits painting and drawing sophomore Logan McManus with getting the local community buzzing about the show’s resurrection.
“I had heard about the show, and one day I went to the bar and we worked up a plan to revive it,” McManus said.
McManus said the event fits well with the Painter’s League at LSU, an artist collaborative of which he is a member.
Katie Naquin, Painters League at LSU president and painting and drawing junior, said her organization was happy to see the event’s return.
“Painters League is about helping each other show our work and get our names out there,” Naquin said. “So when Logan brought the show to our attention, we were happy to participate.”
Naquin said she went to an event last year and enjoyed the convergence of different mediums of art and the inspiration it brought her.
“I went to a show last November and I loved the live art,” Naquin said.
Michele Marks, art history and painting and drawing junior, painted a piece of work live at Drip! Marks said she appreciated the sense of community among artists at the event and embraced the chance to network.
Ceramics junior Amanda Songy displayed some of her handmade jewelry at the exhibition.
“I’m hoping the event will pull in a different crowd and hopefully I’ll get to see some new faces,” Songy said.
According to Songy, the local art scene is improving but it has more ground to cover.
“I’d like to see the bridge between Baton Rouge and New Orleans open to other forms of art besides music,” Songy said.
 
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Contact Josh Naquin at [email protected].