Art East
Old Town Art Center will soon make debut
Friday, September 14, 2007
Kathleen Deshotel

Sometimes life offers lemons and sometimes people are creative enough to turn them into lemonade.

Such is the story of Mary and Eric Dubuisson, owners of the city's historic Slidell Cleaners at 300 Robert St. After having been flooded May 8, 1995, and recovering, 10 years later Katrina came along and flooded them with 10 feet of water Aug. 29, 2005. Now, they will transform the destroyed business into the Old Town Art Center.

The cleaners had been a longtime operating and triving business that was started in 1929 by his aunt and uncle, Rhoda and Joe Johnson. Dubuisson and his wife bought it 27 years ago to keep it in the family and to make it their life's endeavor.

The couple's hearts are intertwined with that building and the city. They had lived upstairs since 1982, raised a family there, ran a thriving business, and were active members of the community in that location. They were part of a vision for Olde Towne Slidell to be the hub of the thriving city.

After Katrina, their son, Scot, a banker, advised them to sell the building and use the money as a source of income. But with this attachment to their history, they didn't want to sell the building and have it be converted to a business that was incongruent with the intention of the historic area.

"While I saw the logic of what my son advised, my heart couldn't let go," Eric said. "We realized that to make it a cleaning business after Katrina would take half a million dollars," and this was not a feasible option for them. So, they began thinking of what they could do to keep the original building, create something great for Slidell, and find personal fulfillment.

They listened to friends who told them that the city needed an art gallery to provide a place for an artists' co-op to learn, to teach, and to sell what they create. The idea appealed to them, and they began to research the viability of such an undertaking.

The first jump start for the Dubuissons was the Louisiana Forward Grant through which they were awarded $20,000, of which they have received half. As with all transactions post-Katrina, it is bogged down in audits as the recipients await the second half of the grant.

Yet, without this grant, Dubuisson said that he could not have begun the necessary repairs and upgrades to bring the building up to code that will be needed.

He is aware that getting the gallery up and running will require personal sacrifice. They are willing to take the opportunity to have something of which they can be proud and something that will draw visitors and encourage the cultural and business revitalization of not only Olde Towne but the entire city, he said.

Artist and teacher Patricia Hart said, "Culture is about neighborhoods pulling people together to hear and to see what they do in their creative lives." As a friend of the Dubuissons, she knows how hard they are working to give Olde Towne a much-needed venue where artists can work, share and display music, art and poetry. She is excited to be a part of the planning that evolves from good intentions and heartfelt desires to enrich the community.

Hart will be part of the board of directors for the Old Town Art Center along with poet Dennis Formento; the Dubuissons' daughter, Marti Dubuisson, who has a degree in fine arts and in interior design; Bill Newton, a family friend and past CEO of the Chamber of Commerce. Among the immediate plans for the center is painting the walls a neutral color in what will be the main gallery in the former cleaners. They plan to leave the exposed ceiling to keep the original look, enlarging the bathroom and divide off space in what was the office into an area for throwing pots and firing works in a newly purchased kiln.

"Several really good artists in the community have already expressed an interest in being part of the center's activities," Dubuisson said. Follow-up plans will involve creating spaces upstairs for artists to rent as studios and provide large class teaching space.

A past band director and a classical saxophonist, Dubuisson understands the need to express his talents. Unfortunately, some loss of hearing has affected that ability. He sent his private students to Boyet Junior High School's talented music teacher, Brina Bourliea, who was once one of Eric's students.

He is the president of the Lion's Club, head of the Olde Towne Advisory Council and now consults and shares his ex-customers and his expertise of the cleaning business with STARC in a venture for them that has gone from exclusively linen cleaning to a full cleaner's business on Shortcut Highway.

Although all of the plans for the Old Town Art Center will not be completed by Nov. 3, the date of the Olde Towne Slidell's Arts Evening, the high-ceilinged main gallery will display the jewelry of Janet Small, the paintings of Fontainebleau High School teacher Ralph Townsend, the clay pieces of Darlene Powell, and the encaustic, hot wax paintings of Kay Mattei.

Making lemonade out of lemons may be a risk, but artists are hoping it yields the sweet taste of success for the community and for Eric and Mary Dubuisson.

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News about arts activities in east St. Tammany may be sent to Kathleen DesHotel, 1120 Pennsylvania Ave., Slidell, LA 70458-2008; or by e-mail to kathleenfocused@gmail.com. All submissions become the property of The Times-Picayune and will not be returned; submissions may be edited and may be published or otherwise reused.

Published on NOLA.com Friday, September 14, 2007 2:08 p.m.

Published in The Times-Picayune Sunday, September 16, 2007