Projects from the Fall 2011 Art 456, Campaigns, are being used by a non-profit company in Arnaudville as part of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana.

This opportunity arose when a previous Campaigns class came up with a proposal for downtown Thibodaux. This proposal included street signs, banners, brochures and logos.

The proposal was a success and assistant professor of art Trisha Dubina was asked to present the project at a Louisiana Cultural Economy summit.

“The Nunu people were there and heard what the students had done, and then they approached us and said that they would love for us to help them,” Dubina said.

The students’ projects will be used by smaller non-profit entities under the major company of Nunu’s. The pieces to be used range from stationary and banners to shirt designs and Web sites. The students were asked to partner up with an entity and create what the entity needed.

The Nunu’s started with George Marks, a sculptor in Arnaudville. Marks moved to Arnaudville to escape Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“Marks saw that it was a small town that had a lot of opportunity,” Dubina said.

Marks then called a few of his artistic friends to Arnaudville and found that a lot of people were interested in learning about art and music. In an effort to maintain the French culture, Marks and his friends began gathering at Nunu Café.

“At the café, they would meet, dance, make art and play music,” Dubina said.

Throughout the course of the meetings, they found they needed to branch off into their own groups, creating different entities.

“Each entity needed different things,” Dubina said. “Each entity had a different amount of pieces that it needed. Some needed more than others. This is a great way for the students to work on various projects.”

Even if a student was not working on a particular piece, they were able to watch other students that were and help solve any problems that arose, Dubina said.

The Nunu people traveled to France to present the student-designed Web sites to cultural organizations that fund these efforts in the United States. Once the Nunu people get funding, they will produce what the students designed for the entities.

The Campaigns class has always been required to produce a series of projects for a business entity, Dubina said.

In the past, the campaigns class has done projects for the Bayou Country Children’s Museum, Habitat for Humanity and Brec BMX Raceway.

Though service-learning projects are not new, this is the first time the class has gained international attention, Dubina said.

Students are not allowed to be paid for work done during the semester.

“Their grade [is] their payment,” Dubina said.

If any client needs the student’s help with printing or making changes, the client can hire and pay the student. This has happened several times, Dubina said.

“This bring honors to the Art Department because this is the first project that has ever been picked up internationally,” Dubina said.