Featured Photo: An image of artist Nick Cave’s “soundsuits” provided by Shreveport Regional Arts Council.
Celebrated artist Nick Cave, who contemporary art lovers will recognize for his iconic “soundsuit” creations as well as genre-defying installations and performances in some of the world’s top museums, will premiere a new multimedia performance art piece at Shreveport Municipal Auditorium on Sunday, March 20, 2016 (buy tickets here or learn more here). Through social media as well as phone calls to our visitor centers, the staff of Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau (publishers of this blog) have been hearing from out-of-town art lovers who are planning their upcoming visit to Shreveport-Bossier. We figured that there may be many more who haven’t reached out to us about their upcoming trip, and so we compiled some resources and information just for those art-loving folks.
The Venue: Shreveport Municipal Auditorium
Nick Cave’s “As Is” performance will take place at Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. This beautiful Art Deco building was constructed between 1926 and 1929. It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and named a National Historic Landmark due to its role in the history of American music. Shreveport Municipal Auditorium was home to the Louisiana Hayride radio broadcast, a long-running and influential showcase which featured the talents of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Kitty Wells and Elvis Presley, just to name a few. The Tourist Bureau produced this series of short, educational Youtube videos about Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, for those who’d like to learn more.
The Neighborhood: Downtown Shreveport
Shreveport Municipal Auditorium is located on the west edge of downtown Shreveport. Within walking distance (and open on Sundays) are several fun spots, including: long-running Cajun and Creole eatery The Blind Tiger; small, whiskey-focused bar Fatty Arbuckle’s; and a two-screen arthouse cinema called Robinson Film Center, among other downtown attractions. Artspace Shreveport, a cool downtown art gallery, is not typically open on Sundays but will open on Sunday, March 20 for a Nick Cave VIP jazz brunch before the show (tickets on sale here). The gallery is open on Saturdays, 12-5 p.m. If you’re traveling to see the Nick Cave show, you’ll want to come up on Saturday and visit Artspace, where you can see Spotted, an exhibition of films featuring Cave’s artwork, along with a huge exhibit of Shreveport-Bossier artists’s work called Critical Mass 4.
The Hashtags
If you’d like to keep up with (or add to) the discussion of Nick Cave’s “As Is” on social media, use the hashtags #NickCaveAsIs and/or #NickCaveBlanketsShreveport. The Shreveport Regional Arts Council, producers of this incredible art event, have been using those hashtags to document the show for months.
The Food: Where to Eat in Shreveport-Bossier
If you’re the type who likes to get to know a city by seeking out its famous local eateries, you may enjoy reading our latest brochure, Eat Here: A Food Lover’s Guide to Shreveport-Bossier. There you’ll find everything you need to know about famous local eats, ranging from the iconic strawberry ice box pies at Strawn’s Eat Shop to a unique take on the shrimp po’ boy called the Shrimp Buster, which can only be had at Herby-K’s.
If you’d like a more complete guide to Shreveport-Bossier, check out a digital copy of our Official Visitors’ Guide. Happy travels and, if you’ve got other questions about Shreveport-Bossier that I may be able to answer, please let me know in the comments!
