The Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has established the Catherine and Ed Blanchet Folklife Endowment, a significant new fund dedicated to supporting the preservation, transmission and creative activation of Louisiana folklore and folklife.
Administered by the Center for Louisiana Studies, the endowment will support three interconnected initiatives: the Catherine and Ed Blanchet Folklife Prize, the Fieldwork Growth Fund and the Activating the Archive Grant.
The endowment reflects a shared commitment to ensuring that Louisiana’s living cultural traditions remain vital, visible and meaningfully passed forward to future generations.
The Catherine and Ed Blanchet Folklife Prize ($5,000 award every two years) will recognize a person of exceptional creativity and commitment engaged in transmitting Louisiana folklore and folklife to succeeding generations. The Fieldwork Growth Fund ($2,500 annual award) will support new documentation of Louisiana cultural traditions, including oral histories, music, craft knowledge, community practices and other forms of folklife, and the growth of the Center's globally recognized archives of traditional culture. The Activating the Archive Grant ($2,500 annual award) will support scholarly, creative and public-facing projects that draw directly on the archival collections of the Center for Louisiana Studies.
“Cultural traditions don't survive just because of some sort of magical cultural osmosis," said Dr. Joshua Caffery, Director of the Center for Louisiana Studies.
"They endure because creative individuals, educators, and culture bearers accept the responsibility of passing things on — to children, to communities, and to anyone willing to learn. Louisiana’s music, foodways, crafts, stories and community practices are internationally recognized, but they begin in local knowledge, local memory, individual creativity and intentional transmission. Supporting that work is essential to the future of our region. We deeply appreciate the generosity and the vision of the donors and the example set by Catherine and Ed Blanchet.”
The first recipient of the Catherine and Ed Blanchet Folklife Prize will be announced in Fall 2026.
A fundraiser for the Center and benefiting the Blanchet fund featuring Dustin Dale Gaspard will take place at Brookshire Farms in Meaux, Louisiana, on April 15. Additional details will be announced soon.
For more information, contact the Center for Louisiana Studies at cls@louisiana.edu.
Photo caption: Catherine Brookshire Blanchet was an American author, educator, University alum and pioneering folklorist who lived in and primarily documented Vermilion Parish from the late 1940s to 1990s. Photo credit: Submitted photo / Center for Louisiana Studies