Several years of effort by a group devoted to the preservation of the French language and culture in the Acadiana area has finally paid off.
The St. Landry Parish Council has voted to allow the long-vacant building that once housed the St. Luke General Hospital to become a first-of-its-kind French immersion school and cultural center.
In a unanimous vote earlier this month, council members approved a measure allowing a group led by Mavis Arnaud, director of the Jaques Arnaud French Studies Collective, George Marks and other members of NUNU Art and Cultural Collective and other supporters to buy and repurpose the building.
St. Luke Hospital operated from 1963 to 1990, funded by taxes levied in the defunct Hospital District No. One in a cooperative program that included parts of St. Martin and St. Landry Parishes. The district was finally dissolved by a vote of both parish governments in 2017 and funds remaining in the district’s account were distributed to the two parishes. St. Landry was left the sole owner of the building.
The Saint LUC French Emersion and Cultural Campus will focus on immersive educational experiences, but will also include basic rental space for French-speaking businesses, conference facilities, dorm rooms, and a culinary incubator and teaching kitchen capable of welcoming domestic and international students, professionals, researchers and educators.
The promoters of the new facility were able to raise $200,000 to purchase the building in just one month and expect to close the sale in the next week. A second campaign will raise the funds needed for renovations.
The center expects to partially open in March, in time for the arrival of Louisiana State University and New York State University French language students.
Marks says, “You can do a few things to help get things moving along more quickly:”
1) “Like” the Saint LUC Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Saint-Luc-305515899465671/
2) Budget for a monetary donation for when the time is right.
3) Start getting ready for when we call for a coup de main.
“It has taken 12 long years but beautiful things are coming our way,” Marks concluded.
