The Center
The Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is an international center for scholarship on Ernest Gaines and his work. The Center honors the work of UL Lafayette’s Writer-in-Residence Emeritus and provides a space for scholars and students to work with the Gaines papers and manuscripts.
Gaines’s generous donation of his early papers and manuscripts (through 1983) and some artifacts to Edith Garland Dupré Library provided the foundation for the Center’s collection. The Center also anticipates acquiring the remainder of Gaines’s papers.
UL Lafayette established the Ernest J. Gaines Center in 2008, and a Board was appointed shortly thereafter. Construction of the Center, located on the 3rd floor of Edith Garland Dupré Library, began in Aug. 2009. The Center was completed in fall 2010 and held its grand opening on Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010. In addition to the University’s contributions and support, the activities of the Center will also depend on philanthropic contributions. Fundraising initiatives to support the activities of the Center and to establish a permanent endowment began in Fall 2009.
Ernest J. Gaines Center Mission Statement
The mission of the Ernest J. Gaines Center is to foster research and scholarship on the life and works of Dr. Ernest J. Gaines, to archive, house, preserve, protect, and utilize the “Collection of Ernest J. Gaines,” and to make the collection available to scholars in perpetuity.
As part of its mission, the Center will collect, catalog, and maintain a body of scholarship surrounding Gaines and his works; organize and conduct, as appropriate, colloquia, seminars, and conferences centered upon the Ernest J. Gaines Center and the collection; and sponsor The Ernest J. Gaines Speakers and Readers Series.
Dr. Ernest J. Gaines and his wife, Dianne Saulney Gaines, have entrusted for scholarly research purposes to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Ernest J. Gaines Center the “Collection of Ernest J. Gaines” consisting of any published and unpublished manuscripts, drafts, and notes; selected personal and business correspondence; first editions of published works of the author; miscellaneous papers; awards, honors, and memorabilia.
The Ernest J Gaines Center embraces its role as guardian of the Gaines legacy.