Grace Hamilton-Mayfield a 1982 graduate of University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She has advanced studies at Alvin Ailey School, Dance Education Teacher Certification at Western Kentucky University, and advanced studies at Texas Women’s University. In 1981 she Founded Hamilton Academy of the Arts (HAA) located in North Lafayette. In 1988 she expanded to Opelousas her hometown and founded the Hamilton Academy Performance Company (HAPC). In 2001 she developed a dance curriculum in accordance with long term objectives of existing lesson plans and organizational goals. Grace served as an Artist in the classroom for 15 years with the St. Landry Parish...

Monique Morton Derouselle is a filmmaker, actress, and educator originally from Shreveport, Louisiana. She is a graduate of Southern University Baton Rouge and California State University Los Angeles where she received her MFA in writing for TV, Film, and Theatre. She also studied improvisation at The Second City Hollywood Training Center. You may have seen her performing with Silverbacks Improv Theatre or on the short lived AOC comedic news show The Lagniappe. Monique has written, directed, and self produced a few projects to help strengthen her skills as a writer/ director. She won the Bckstry L.A. to L.A. screenwriting competition and...

Chase Julien is a fine artist focused on figurative painting based in Lafayette, La. Raised in the small rural village of Loreauville, he enrolled in the talent art program from early elementary through high school. Otherwise, he is a self-taught artist, inspired and influenced by the scenery of his rural hometown, his peers, and early surrealists like Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico. Chase’s work typically consists of portraiture and animals with a purpose of exemplifying grace, eloquence, and a degree of mystique, executed in a happy balance between realism, expressionism, and surrealism in the mediums of acrylic paint or...

Trinity Wallace is a visual artist based in Acadiana. Her current artistic focus includes: portraits and  abstraction of emotion and people. From a young age, art was nurtured and encouraged. After receiving her Bachelors in Art Education from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, she taught in public and private schools as an art educator for 7.5 years. In 2019, she heard God say it was time to deep dive into the artist world. This is when Tiawn Art Studio was born. Through Tiawn Art Studio, Trinity provides multiple ways to connect her art with the community.  Since then Trinity...

Aileen Bennett spends her days illustrating, designing, painting, writing, giving presentations, and creating stuff. She lives in that gap that often exists between business and the arts, finding inspiration in both areas. She writes the BE YOU column for The Advocate (and has done for 10 years), a place where she gets to feature people and tell the world a little more about them, something she loves to do. Aileen also is a specialist in Pitch Coaching training people to pitch their products and ideas in a few minutes. She has worked with everyone from local accelerators to large international...

I am a Louisiana/NYC-based dancer and artist from Lafayette, LA with a chemical engineering degree that’s never been used. I currently dance for three professional companies: NYC’s Dance Heginbotham, NYC’s MeenMoves and Lafayette’s own Basin Dance Collective. As a freelance dancer, you can catch me performing in anything from a Marc Jacobs Runway show to with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, or even popping up in a shop window in downtown, Laf. As a creator, I make videos and dances. My work aims to blend (and muddy) new and old technology, music, theatre and dance to fantasize a realm of contrasting...

Charles Claudel Garrett I, is an artist based out of Lafayette, La. He is widely published and has performed in Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama. He is finishing his 3 debut works. A collection of poetry, a novel, and a screenplay. He is the recipient of the New Orleans Take Notice Fund and is playing Christian “Copper” Laurent in the CItes des Arts adaptation of Ernest Gaines short story, “Bloodlines.” When he is not writing or performing, he is spending his time writing copy for marketing teams, across a variety of industries and companies. Who makes up your art circle? My...

Roz Lecompte has had a ravenous thirst to create since she was a little girl in South Louisiana. As a self taught artist , she favors a figurative abstract style, mostly using the moment as her muse. She has explored many mediums including up-cycling broken drum cymbals, creating Secondline Jewels since 2012 and has publicly displayed her artworks at various galleries since the 1990’s. She is currently a Lafayette Parish Pace Artist for the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Who makes up your art circle? I’ve taken a 20 year hiatus from painting to build my jewelry business, so the circles have...

Triston Antoine is an emerging artist and designer based in Lafayette. Often working across multiple disciplines, his work is rooted in the synthesis and communication of new and innovative ideas involving the nature of humanity and the many ways that the ever-changing world is taking our species to exciting new directions. Triston holds a BFA with a focus on Interdisciplinary Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Who makes up your art circle? I like to keep my circle stacked and interesting, always with an element of something new and exciting: Photographers, DJs, Club Kids, Socialites, the...

Whitney Willis Hebert has studied, performed, and created dance for the better part of 30 years.  She is involved in the Lafayette dance community as Assistant Director for Morgan Street Dance Company and as a company member of Basin Arts.  Recent credits include: directing and choreographing THIRST as a part of Acadiana Center for the Arts- Residency @ The Center program; performing in Basin Dance Collective’s Sports Suites and Surface; choreographing for the 2017 & 2020 performances of UL’s State of La Danse; choreographing and performing for Mother Of – Piano Reworks, Live at the Marigny Opera House.  Who makes up your art circle? Dance students, colleagues, co-workers, friends, family, anyone...