State officials to tour sites in Bayou des Glaises Cultural District

Staff from the state Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism (CRT) will soon be in Avoyelles Parish to conduct site visits in the recently certified Bayou des Glaises Cultural District.

Aloysia Ducote, a leader in the effort to create the east Avoyelles cultural district, said the state certification opens the door for preservation efforts to protect historic buildings and to encourage artists to display and sell their work within the cultural district.

“Being a certified cultural district allows property owners to receive state tax credits to restore and preserve historic structures,” Ducote said. “It also exempts artists from having to charge and remit sales tax on artwork they sell within the district’s boundaries.”

Those tax-related incentives benefit individuals. A more “big picture” benefit is that a state-certified cultural district with a volunteer board of directors provides a structure to apply, receive and administer grants from state, federal and private sources.

Those grants can be used to promote the arts, develop programs that feature an area’s distinctive culture or to preserve historic sites within the district.

Another group, led by Jacques Goudeau, is seeking to create a cultural district in the Marksville area.

Ducote said there has been interest expressed in establishing similar cultural districts in other areas of the parish. There had been a suggestion of creating a parishwide district, but it was decided that several small districts would be better than one large one.

The biggest advantage to the small district approach is that it allows people from that small area to be involved in developing and overseeing the activities in their local community.