Following August’s heaving flooding, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge started to offer “creative relief” to victims.

The notion began Aug. 15 as an Arts Council initiative to assist the community in a multitude of ways, offering a variety of programming to those in need. The council continues to accept donations to the Creative Relief Fund on its website, www.artsbr.org. The money is distributed in the form of assistance grants to artists.

Nine of the 11 parishes inside the Arts Council’s reach were hit by flooding. The program split into two sections — Artists in Need and Artists Helping Others.

Director of Finance Anna Schwab said the Council surveyed artists and organizations to determine the scope of the problem. It quickly became apparent, she said, that if the Council wanted to help them all, it would take a larger-scale initiative.

The Arts Council called other arts councils, arts organizations, grant recipient groups and schools. Other than personal losses, she said local schools took the biggest hit and became the primary focus of the donation effort, replacing arts supplies and art integrated classrooms, Schwab said.

Lake Elementary School in St. Amant, for example, received donated books at a fourth-grade level to replace its flooded library. Greenbrier Elementary School, Park Forest Elementary School, Baker High School and Denham Springs High School received art supplies.

She said the council also paired with The Jazz Foundation of America to help school music departments which lost instruments.

“[Individual donations have] been tremendous,” Schwab said. “That was what funded our ability to make all the supply purchases that we then delivered to schools.”

She said donations to the general fund are allocated to any area of the relief fund, but that donations could also be made for specific artists or artistic mediums.

“Creative Relief” is more than just a donation fund. Volunteers, artists and teachers have been dispatched to relief shelters for individual help.

Associate Director of the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre Rebecca Acosta said the theatre sent out a call to its youth ballet to prepare a dance routine for shelter performances.

“The kids were just so excited to see us and be entertained, so we just did some line dancing with them and involved them getting up and moving,” she said.

David Hinson is one of the musicians who performed outside shelters to provide entertainment every time flood victims took a breather outdoors. He called the Arts Council an organization that has always been influential in the community. But with “Creative Relief,” he said, it was able to provide a new element to its programming.

The Arts Council also put together a one-week camp, “Artsplosion,” for children ages five to 10.

Schwab said the Arts Council paid the entry fees to different venues around the city, such as the LSU Museum of Art, the Old Louisiana State Capitol and the Manship Theatre at the Shaw Center for the Arts.

Trained teachers were brought into shelters to work with the Prime Time literacy program provided by Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. The teachers were able to help with bringing an educational component, Schwab said.
While most of the Arts Council’s donations have been used, Schwab said the organization will continue to be responsive to what needs still exist.