Serving her community through the arts is a way of life for Jackie Lyle. What started out as a mission to find performances for her children has evolved into her role as the executive director of Performing Arts Serving Acadiana. Also known as PASA, the nonprofit organization is the locus of arts and music in the Acadiana region that exposes community members to a variety of performing arts.
The nonprofit relaunched its first performing arts season in 2021, bringing lively arts back to the Heymann Center stage.
“The biggest mistake that arts organizations make is not giving people access to artists,” Lyle said.
When the Fine Arts Foundation, which started in 1975, brought legendary performers like Roberta Peters, Ella Fitzgerald, Gregory Hines, Dr. Billy Taylor, Alexander Godunov and Mikhail Baryshnikov to Lafayette, Lyle was in college and then starting a family. For 13 years, the Fine Arts Foundation brought acts that were performing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to a booming Lafayette.
However, when the foundation filed for bankruptcy in 1988, Lyle faced a tough reality.
As a mom to three kids, she wondered where she would take them to experience similar performances. Although she was working full time at The Times of Acadiana, she got involved with the Fine Arts Foundation board.
The next year, she got involved even more and worked with Performing Arts Society of Acadiana for 22 years until 2011. Eventually, that organization ceased programming as well. Lyle worked with others to start Upstage, a new performing arts organization, which was renamed to Performing Arts Serving Acadiana.
PASA’s mission is to provide local access to performances by nationally and internationally known performing artists and ensembles, outreach and residency activities like master classes, workshops and other sessions. These events are available for aspiring artists, and they also create paid performance opportunities.
Gail Romero, a long-time supporter of PASA, says it’s important to support the organization because its versatile programming is able to reach a wide spectrum of people in the area. Romero also lauds the consistent outreach to children and schools, which make the fine arts accessible to young people through education.
Romero likens Lyle to a music teacher she had in the 1950s who introduced her and her peers to opera.
“He exposed us to the opera, high school kids from Franklin,” Romero said. “I would never have had that experience if not for him, and I feel like Jackie is doing this for the students in Lafayette.”
Performances and programming
On Sept. 24, Emmy-nominated singer-songwriter Ben Folds performed at the Heymann Center with Lindsey Kraft to kick off the fall programming.
PASA is also hosting an expert presentation of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work in conjunction with the play.
“When we’re in the process of deciding our programming, we think, ‘How much can we do? What is the great impact that we could have?’ And then we look at what is feasible from a human resource standpoint,” Lyle said. “If it’s worth doing, the funding will come.”
Bringing the arts to Acadiana
While PASA regularly hosts performances in Lafayette, its mission is to also expand their reach to rural communities in the area by providing students with access to drama, music, dance and arts opportunities.
To fulfill that mission, Lyle designates daytime performances for schoolchildren. This school year, about 6,000 children will attend performances at the Heymann Center to see Mark Nizer, who uses magic and juggling to teach science, and Flamenco Vivo.
The organization will also bring a three-part series to Dr. Raphael A. Baranco Elementary for students, parents and faculty to see Mark Nizer, Flamenco Vivo and a behind-the-curtain show that demonstrates how the lights and sound work for shows.
“We have an asset that a lot of communities don’t have, and that is our programming is brave,” Lyle said.
PASA works with educators to establish programs that go beyond the stage as well. They are launching an essay contest in October for sixth grade through college about the topic, “What the Constitution Means to Me.” The winner of the contest will be incorporated into the end of the play and will be able to read their essay to the audience.
Beyond Lafayette, PASA puts on events in Washington, a small town of 950 residents about 30 miles away from Lafayette. The organization brought talks on the Tuskegee Airmen and Black Cowboys to Washington Recreation Center.
Initiatives like this ensure that the arts are being made available to a diverse group of community members.
“We are really a wellspring for building curiosity,” Lyle says. “Wouldn’t it be fantastic if more people were more curious of the things they don’t know about? Whether the literature, whether it be architecture, whether it be health, our performing arts — these are all things that build a stronger community, make us better citizens and build our literacy in all sorts of ways.”