As a creative, Gina Hanchey has experience in the world of dance, acting, film, and theater. She has been choreographing and teaching classical and contemporary ballet for thirty years and has created over a dozen dance performances from show concept, choreography and rehearsal to production. An actor experienced in stage, film and television, Gina is a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). Her writing and directing has received top nominations from The Slamdance Screenplay Competition and The Los Angeles Filmmaking Competition. Her latest show, Beauty Will Always Be Edible,...

Jazmyn Jones is a creative, choreographer and dance educator from Lafayette. Growing up, she trained all over the country and performed with Debbie Allen and Houston’s Urban Souls Dance Company. She went on to attend Howard University on full academic scholarship. She returned home to serve her community and is now a dance instructor at FEPAC and the director of Difé II, a junior pre-professional dance company. Jazmyn has her ABT Teacher Certification Pre-Primary – Level 3. With her mentor and friend, Leigha Porter, she created The Creole Nutcracker – an original theatrical production that casts and educates youth of...

Hannah Gumbo is a Acadiana based muralist & illustrator making work that embraces color, positivity, & JOY. Who makes up your art circle? My husband who also works remotely in our home, our cats & puppy who are terrible studio assistants that mainly sleep on the job, my clients that partner with me on cool projects, & all my internet pals doing the freelance art / small biz life too. How do you expand your art circle? It’s changed over the years. For a long time it was saying YES to every opportunity in order to meet more makers &...

Bethany LeJeune is an artist whose work consists of mixed media sculptures, installations, and video. She received her BFA at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is currently an MFA candidate at the Vermont College of Fine Arts low residency program. Her work revolves around self-reflection and often takes on themes of femininity, familial relationships, and bodily disfigurement. Who makes up your art circle? My art circle is very much made up of movers and makers in the Acadiana area that I have met through Basin Arts and other arts organizations. My art circle is also made up of...

John Alex McBride is originally from Lafayette, Louisiana. He received his BFA from The University of Arizona in Tucson and is currently an MFA candidate at Hollins University. Alex has danced and trained with San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, River North Dance Chicago, 10 Hairy Legs (NYC), The Limón Dance Company (NYC), and Basin Dance Collective (Lafayette). He has performed, taught, and toured across North and Central America, and Europe, performing works by Jose Limón, Ted Shawn, Kate Weare, Adam Weinert, Adam Barruch, Colin Conner, and Clare Cook. Alongside performing, Alex has begun choreographing original work and researching archival American...

Drawn to the arts at a young age I cannot remember a time when art wasn’t a tool that I used to try and make sense of the world.  Being self taught I bounced around several art forms: pen and paper, photography (eventually with my own dark room), storytelling, historical reenactment, documentary making, digital photo manipulation, and most recently painting. My favorite art expressions lately are teaching art to inmates and busking (street performance) in a series I call Unflattering Abstract Portraits. It involves two chairs, an easel, and a sign that says ‘Unflattering Abstract Portraits, Free, Tips Accepted”. Any...

Amanda is a multi-disciplinary artist residing in Lafayette, LA. She has been studying within the Visual Arts department and the Dance department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette since 2017 and is now a senior studying Graphic Design. Amanda has been a member of Basin Arts since 2018 and a teaching artist as of this past year. She has participated in the university productions State of La Danse and Evening of Dance in addition to various multimedia performances within the community. Who makes up your art circle? My art circle consists of movers, multi-media artists, musicians and storytellers. How...

Cory St. Ewart is a Lafayette-based visual artist, filmmaker, and activist who uses his art to promote Black representation in Acadiana and explore concepts racial representation and personal identity in both physical and digital forms. St. Ewart is the founder of AcadianaBlack and the designer of the Acadiana Black Pride Flag. He has made multiple festival accepted short films. He is currently in post production on his next short film “The Negro & The Cheese Knife” and has a exhibition at Bottle Art Lofts. Who makes up your art circle? My art is circle is every inch of land and...

Drake Leblanc is this week’s featured Art Circle artist. He is a filmmaker and media artist, and Founder and Creative Director of Above the Beyond,  a media powerhouse responsible for creating disruptive, thought provoking film and digital content. Drake is also a resident creative artist at Basin Arts.  I got into film because I saw both of my parents using cameras to document things that were important to them. As I got older, I realized that the black community was often underrepresented in media and fine art and even when they were present, it was never at the same high...

Peggy Walters is this week’s featured Art Circle artist. She is a Louisiana-based visual artist with a large collection of paintings inspired by nature and the Louisiana landscape. Peggy is also one of our most highly selected artists in the BARE Walls program (find out more about the program here). Each week Basin Arts is featuring a different artist in the hopes that readers will get to know more about the diverse range of artists in our community. Peggy shares her thoughts about her art circle and how the last year of COVID has changed the way she is able...