Shreveport welcomes first contemporary art museum: Marlene Yu Museum

Downtown Shreveport is about to be transformed on a level that few would have imagined possible. The former YWCA building on Travis Street, vacant for the past 10 years, is the new home and headquarters for internationally renowned Marlene Tseng Yu and her family’s Rainforest Art Foundation.

The foundation will host a preview party Dec. 18 and its grand opening Dec. 21. With the completion of Phase I, visitors will be able to view works by local and international, professional and emerging artists inspired by the “Beauty and Spirit of Nature” in the main exhibition halls and gift shop.

The mission of the art

Stephanie Yu Lusk is Marlene Yu’s daughter and the director of the Marlene Yu Museum and the Rainforest Art Foundation.

“To be building Shreveport’s first contemporary art museum,” Stephanie enthused, “to be a part of a global environmental arts movement that my mom pioneered, to increase interest and value to our city through this long-term community investment as an international destination, … I am passionate about the Rainforest Art Foundation and the Marlene Yu Museum on so many levels. How did we transform a building in 10 years of decline in only 10 months? Together, we did it for love. Love of nature, family, art and Shreveport.”

Visual artist Marlene has been featured in over 70 solo shows worldwide.

“Marlene is a pioneer in the environmental green movement in the arts and has a passion for the beauty and awe of mother nature,” Stephanie said. “Since she was a little girl in Taiwan, she has always enjoyed being outside and draws inspiration from her natural surroundings. She started RAF to bring together like-minded artists in all different artistic disciplines so that they may work together to show their art with themes in nature.”

“Marlene has a grand desire to save the planet,” Stephanie said, “and hopes that creating awareness through art will aid in the preservation of our planet. Her dream to grow Rainforest Art Foundation into a global movement is coming to fruition, with its founding in [New York City], its expansion to Zurich and Frankfurt, and headquarters to open soon in Shreveport.”

More about the Yus

“You can’t talk about Marlene without talking about my father James,” Stephanie said. “They are free-spirited and forwardthinking, and yet business-minded and practical. They are very much do-it-yourselfers, and love giving parties. At the opening receptions in New York, they typically cook food for 100-200 people every few months.”

“Both of my parents are immigrants,” Stephanie said. “My father is Shanghainese, but was born in the Philippines. My mother is Taiwanese and her father was a doctor. Both of my parents were born during war times. My father was ambitious and told his father that he wanted to feed the hungry people in the world. My grandfather took him to visit an agricultural college and somehow the lack of glamour there and his persuasion led my father to take up business instead, with the idea of first making money and then being able to fund other pursuits, like boating, fishing and saving the world.”

“My mother studied art education in high school, and then fine art at college in Taiwan,” Stephanie said. “My parents met at the University of Colorado at Boulder where my father earned his bachelor’s degrees in business and architecture, and my mother earned her master’s degree in fine art. Marlene had three jobs during grad school – seamstress, babysitter and waitress at IHOP.”

Stephanie credits her parents’ magnanimity, creativity and resourcefulness for laying the groundwork for not only the Shreveport space, but early development efforts of SoHo in New York.

“We lived in an open layout loft in SoHo, originally a factory district that changed into artists’ live-work spaces and a neighborhood of galleries, and has now transformed into a popular fashion district with a mix of highend boutiques and offices,” she said. “After living in SoHo for 40 years, my parents left their 8,000-square-foot loft in Manhattan to move to Queens. There, they established the Rainforest Art Foundation in Long Island City, now New York City’s most dense art population, where they transformed a 15,000-square-foot former rug warehouse into a gallery and studio space. These pioneers in environmental arts and artists’ districts are at it again in downtown Shreveport with approximately 41,000 square feet in the former YWCA building.”

Stephanie’s first perspective of Marlene was her role as mother rather than artist, even though she was surrounded by Marlene’s work from a very early age. In fact, her kindergarten class did an interpretive dance performance based on Marlene’s “Black Hole Series.” “My mother picked me up from Montessori school and Little Red Schoolhouse, and she would have me paint abstractions next to her,” Stephanie said. “My parents encouraged the idea to let my fourthgrade friends paint my room with neon puffy paint and acrylics. Then, at Hunter College High School, Marlene coached my drawing in art class and for fun.”

It wasn’t until Stephanie began experimenting with website design in college in 1997 that she began to comprehend the range, the scope and the influence of Marlene Tseng Yu, the artist. “When I was little, shapes and what seemed like faces in her paintings haunted me,” said Stephanie, referencing Marlene’s “Underground: Cave Garden Series” as an example. “I took her art for granted, like wallpaper. It was really in high school when I started cataloging her work online and in print for international art magazines that I started to gain an appreciation of her different series, the distinctly recognizable ‘Marlene Tseng Yu style’ that she has developed and comes through in all her series, and how she balances multiple dualistic qualities in her art: abstraction and realism, Eastern and Western subjects, Eastern and Western techniques. She has always been and still is, my mother, the artist.”

It was after college that Stephanie began to realize the magnitude of her parents’ work, as well as their unique personalities.

“I learned that what I thought were my conservative hippie parents not only owned and managed a popular disco in Glen Cove in Long Island in the 1970s, but that it was a gay disco and not just any gay disco. Gays and lesbians and straight people partied together, eating Chinese fusion food my mom cooked.” Disco stars such as Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer and the Village People frequented the disco.

Some of Stephanie’s personal favorites from her mother’s portfolio include the 12- by-36 foot Undercurrent (1998).

“It is just a gorgeous happy work,” she said. “Blue Lagoon/Brown Belt (1993) reminds me of kayaking in Willy Wonkaesque chocolate muddy waters into calm blue travertine waters in the Grand Canyon with my husband Bryan [Lusk]. I also love her molten lava paintings that have pink in them, all the water-related series, and the Floating Series’ works from the early 1970s.”

Stephanie also had the opportunity look at some of Marlene’s early works, from when she was training in school in Taiwan. “They are impeccably done,” she said, “with traditional Chinese brushstrokes and traditional Chinese subjects, such as scenes of mountains appearing to float in clouds, women in qipaos, and realistic depictions of birds and fish. I believe her master’s work in American abstract expression greatly affected development of her own style, combining Eastern and Western techniques.”

Turns out it really was love that first brought Stephanie to Shreveport. She met her husband Shreveport native Bryan Lusk in person for the first time at Marlene’s solo at the Towson University Center for the Arts in 2006. Once the young couple welcomed a new baby into their lives, Marlene and James decided they couldn’t live without their little grandson Wyatt. That deep family bond has snowballed into a project of significance and scope that will change downtown Shreveport forever.

Building overhaul

“We joked recently that if our friend Rachel Scott of the YWCA hadn’t asked to keep the building’s sign, we could have flipped the ‘W’ and named it the Yu Museum of Contemporary Art,” Stephanie said.

“All kidding aside, we are thrilled to be a part of the history of the building and the Travis Street block,” Stephanie said. “We may even have some collaboration with the current YWCA as it develops its programming once again.”

When James Yu was searching for the right building to convert in downtown Shreveport, one of his chief reasons for choosing the abandoned YWCA building was because it is concrete and somewhat fireproof. “That was of special concern to my dad,” Stephanie said. “During the 40 years that my parents lived and worked in SoHo of New York City, they saw many of the landmarked buildings from the 1800s suffer huge fires.”

The YWCA building had both the square footage and location James wanted but it was appealing in other ways. “It was a womenled construction project in 1950-54,” Stephanie said. “The tough building was even considered a nuclear fallout shelter.”

Stephanie’s favorite part of the YWCA building, however, is the swimming pool. “As part of Rainforest Art Foundation’s mission to increase appreciation of nature through art, we will try to save the pool to be a climbing and paddling training center, to increase appreciation of nature through the alpine and aquatic arts of outdoor skills development, a project of River Rocks Life.”

The pool is extremely important to Stephanie and her role in the entire project, but it ultimately encompasses her entire family, as well. “Looking at the big picture, it seems a little too fitting to me that I happen to be married to a competitive whitewater kayaker and my dad chose this building that happens to have a pool,” Stephanie said.

Stephanie said when her father James had heart surgery in June of 2006, her prayers for him included a request that she could one day build a water park that would “honor God’s creation of water.” In fact, Stephanie and her husband Bryan’s second date was a kayaking trip on the Potamac River, all of which led in part to her real estate master’s thesis in 2009 on the marketability and feasibility of a whitewater park in Shreveport. Stephanie hopes the existing YWCA pool will culminate in fulfilling her dream of donation workout sessions, where people exercise together to benefit the museum and foundation. “I know it may sound silly,” she said, “and that a water park to honor the creation of minerals, water and life might not happen in this building, but so far, it really seems like someone out there is listening to my prayers.”

The future and community of art

This globally relevant but family-centered project has heartfelt but ambitious goals.

“We hope to inspire in our son, Wyatt, the beauty of God’s creation, love of outdoors, kayaking, family and Shreveport,” Stephanie said. “We hope that the Marlene Yu Museum and the Rainforest Art Foundation will complement the existing organizations and arts community in growing our downtown area through cultural development. We want Shreveport to be a city where families and people want to stay, play, vacation and learn.”

Stephanie said she sees the Rainforest Art Foundation headquarters as a place for artists to work together, show their work and create innovative projects and programs. “It will also be a place for children to learn about art and nature and show their own works.”

The museum will also contain “MYmuseum,” which will incorporate social media to enhance each visitor’s experience.

The entire Yu/Lusk family has invested in Shreveport for reasons that are important to them. “People here genuinely care,” Stephanie said. “With fewer distractions here than in New York City, people have time to care. They encourage long-term relationships and community building. It only takes 15 minutes to get anywhere in Shreveport and Bossier, unlike the daily treks many commuters in the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area have to contend with. Less time commuting means more time with family, meditation and creation of happiness.

“With the museum and foundation as an international destination for natureinspired arts and the Shreveport/Bossier area’s first contemporary arts museum, we would like to help further our community’s development as an educational and cultural hub, and hopefully attract young talent to play, work and stay here. While we have helped to develop what are now the trendy art areas in New York City – SoHo, TriBeCa, DUMBO, Chelsea and Long Island City – and the population is not yet the same here in Shreveport, it is awesome to see the transformation and increased value of buildings and neighborhoods over time, that start with investment in the arts.”

Stephanie and her family see that kind of potential in Shreveport, as well as a downright fun vibe in downtown entertainment and living.

“Walking and street food are awesome in NYC, and it’s starting to happen here in Shreveport.”

Want to go?

The Rainforest Art Foundation and the Marlene Yu Museum’s preview party Dec. 18 will include dinner, an open bar, live entertainment and a ribbon-cutting by Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne. Tickets are $125 per person and the foundation is requesting RSVP by Dec. 12. The grand opening on Dec. 21 will include food, wine and live entertainment. Admission is free with suggested donation of $10 per family to benefit RAF’s Young Artist Gallery and Biology and Art Exploration Program. More information is available at www.rainforestartfoundation.org, and www.marleneyumuseum.org.

Some of the artiStS

Visual artists: Shirlene Alexander, Christina Arnold, Joe Bluhm, Julie Burgin, Susan Duke, Don Edwards, Debbie Engle, Meg Fournier, Ellen Frautschi, Taffie Garsee, Curt Harville, Camille Hirsch and Louis Sicard, Bob Horne, Judy Horne, Jim Hudelson, Eva Hurskin, Dave Ivey, Lana Johnson, Casey Jones, Lynn Laird, Caitlin Lindsay, Rosalyn Liu, Katy Merriman, Henry Price, Jeanne Reed, Rachel Sangsura, Christopher Seaman, Robert Streeter, Robert Trudeau, Minor Vinck, Adam Volker, Marlene Yu Culinary artists: Bistro Byronz, Bistro to Go, Blue Southern Comfort Foods, Chef Eddie Mars of Petroleum Club, Chef von Noppen of cafe@artspace, Farmer’s Seafood Co., Fleur de Crème, Glenwood Village Tea Room, Indigo Indian Bistro, Lagniappe Foods, Lucky Palace, Ristorante Giuseppe, Sumo Supreme Buffet, The Noble Savage, Twisted Root Burger Co., Windrush Grill, Performing artists: Chamber Orchestra and Dr. K’s Dance Department of Caddo Magnet High, Louisiana Dance Collective, Tchai, recordings by Twang Darkly