The country-wide quarantine due to COVID-19 has affected many elements of “life as we know it.” But not even a global pandemic can dull the vibrant strokes of the artist community’s brushes. Art is alive and thriving in northwest Louisiana, bringing joy and hope amid uncertainty.

began in 2012 as a way to ensure that visiting National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman “saw” the art of Northwest Louisiana artists, grew into one of the most high-energy, vibrant reflections of the passion and talent of local visual, literary and performance artists.

Originally from Oregon, Robert received his master’s degree from the University of Colorado – Boulder and his Ph.D. at Oregon State. He accepted a position as a biology professor at the University of Michigan and spent the next 25 years there. He wanted to live amongst the mountains and desert, so the couple retired to Utah.

Ten-year-old Isaiah Roberts’s mom asked a friend last April if she would drive them to ArtBreak because she didn’t have a car. She had heard about the Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC) annual event with hands-on art activities and thousands of pieces of student art filling the Shreveport Convention Center each April.