Hi, everyone! My name is Brittany, and I'm a board member and volunteer with TownFolk and a curator at Gallery 333. Recently, I had the pleasure of creating the poster art for TownFolk's third annual Victory Festival in addition to leading the art show and silent auction portion of the event. This year's festival theme was "flora and fauna" based on the growth and abundance currently at the garden. It means so much to me to be able to help sustain the Victory Garden, which was created in honor of Jillian Johnson, through this yearly fundraiser.

The art show and silent auction was full of dozens of donations from local artists and businesses. I'd like to highlight a few of my personal favorite pieces:

For each Victory Festival so far, Mimosa Handcrafted has donated a beautiful cuff. This year's Magnolia Corsage cuff perfectly fits the "flora and fauna" theme.

"Magnolia Corsage Cuff" by Mimosa Handcrafted

We were touched to showcase these powerful prayer flags donated by Leah Graeff, who led the making of the flags during several community vigils in the summer of 2015.

Leah's words on the installation: “These flags were created by you or someone you know. You came together on three separate occasions to grieve, support, and celebrate each other. Spend some time revisiting the pieces. Maybe you’ll laugh, maybe you’ll cry. You’ll certainly feel reconnected to your community."

Other project collaborators on the flags include Fawn Viator Hernandez, Bree Sargent, Elizabeth Brooks, The Acadiana Center for the Arts, The Horse Farm (now Moncus Park), and Blackham Coliseum.

We filled the entire back room of the gallery with rows and rows on the prayer flags. The installation room was quiet and slow-paced and offered a quiet space for guests who wanted a moment to reflect. The flags were both sad and beautiful, and stirred up a lot of emotions.

"Jillian's Rosettes" donated from Jackie and Sally Johnson

We were also humbled to showcase these sentimental pieces from Jackie and Sally Johnson, Jillian's parents.

Jackie said of the pieces: "These 'rosettes' were part of a much larger assembled sculpture that was part of Jillian’s Senior Show. After the show, the larger pieces were disassembled and salvageable portions were stored away.

I’ve made bases for the individual 'rosettes' from salvaged remains of cypress fence posts that I got in Nashville some 6 or so years ago. With some advice and editing from Sally, I think that Jillian would have proud to present these to the Lafayette community. Especially in service to such a good cause as TownFolk."

The rosette pieces are made from Jillian's fabric scraps by Sally Johnson.

For the third year in a row, we held the Victory Festival at Gallery 333 and our neighboring lots. This location makes for a spacious event space for the art show, music performances, food trucks, and vendors, and is just a block away from the Victory Garden.

Video by Jacob Danos

This video clip taken by Jacob Danos through the an open window in the gallery shows the New Natives Brass Band playing outside during the Victory Festival next to the children's play area. The Blue Runners and Sweet Cecilia also performed outside later in the afternoon.

Guests looking at pieces in the show and silent auction

It always astounds us how many people come together to keep the Victory Garden growing and thriving. We had another great Victory Festival thanks to so much community support! TownFolk has a exciting plans for the garden on the horizon, all made possible by the efforts of everyone who has been so generous. 💕

Thanks everyone!
—Brittany Boudreaux

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