The newest addition to downtown Lafayette's cultural landscape is hoping for a little wiggle room in the Hub City's liquor-license moratorium.
The newest addition to downtown Lafayette's cultural landscape is hoping for a little wiggle room in the Hub City's liquor-license moratorium and is asking supporters to pitch in.
Photo by Robin May
The Feed & Seed is located in what was originally Broussard's Feed & Seed on Grant Street near the railroad tracks. The century-old building was restored
over the last several years by blues musician Andy
Cornett with help from friends.
The Feed & Seed Community Arts Center, located at 106 N. Grant St. across the tracks from downtown, has been operating mainly as an all-ages, no-alcohol-served music venue since its soft opening about a month ago - F/S is currently celebrating its grand opening with a series of live-music performances throughout February - but is seeking a special beverage permit through state- and city agencies to allow it to serve adult beverages on special occasions.
In a Monday email, Bernard Pearce, F/S's manager and booking agent, asks backers to send letters in support of the venue and its community-arts mission to Troy Hebert, commissioner of the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control, as well as to the local Office of Alcohol and Noise Control and the chief of police underscoring the venue's role in Lafayette's cultural economy.
In an effort to curtail the proliferation of bars clustering in the downtown area, the City-Parish Council several years ago enacted a moratorium that prohibits the issuance of new liquor licenses. But as Pearce argues, Feed & Seed is not a bar; it has a wider mission of providing artists in multiple media - visual arts, dance, film in addition to music - a place to incubate new works and test-run performances, in addition to bringing established regional musical acts to Lafayette.
"We are simply not a bar nor are we a night club," Pearce writes. "We aren't strictly a music venue either. What we are is clearly stated in our name - we are a community arts center.'"
Read more about Feed & Seed in last week's LivingIND cover story, "Feeding a Need."