Name: Big Towns 2025
Start: 2025-04-23T12:30:00+00:00
End: 2025-04-24T21:00:00+00:00
Location: Acadiana Center for the Arts - general

Description

You’ve heard of middle America. Big Towns is a conversation for mid-sized America: Places too big to be small towns and too small to be big cities.

Big Towns is a two-day summit, celebrating mid-sized cities and what they do to thrive.

The second annual Big Towns summit continues to identify and celebrate the best efforts in big towns across the country – initiatives and solutions that help uniquely American communities maintain their local identities and economies.

Leveraging Lafayette, Louisiana's identity as one of the most unique “Big Towns” in the country, this year’s summit will challenge how we grow and nurture local economic, health, information and cultural landscapes in mid-sized cities across the United States.

The Big Towns summit brings together organizations and speakers from across the country over two full days to share winning strategies that create more vibrant, resilient mid-sized American communities.

Conference tracks include:

Growth & Economy: Economic development, innovation, sustainability, housing and planning
Health & Healthcare: Healthcare, public health, social determinants of health
Civics & Media: Local journalism, civic engagement and democracy
Community & Culture: Arts, culture and community development

Big Towns 2025 will feature a mix of standalone keynote presentations, moderated panels and hands-on, interactive breakout sessions. Participants will have the option of following tracks on similar topics or switching between sessions of their choice.

For full schedule, please visit www.bigtowns.org

Big Towns is co-hosted by The Current, Lafayette's only nonprofit news organization, and United Way of Acadiana, serving Acadia, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Martin and Vermilion parishes.

Date & Time

Apr 23, 2025 7:30 AM - Apr 24, 2025 4:00 PM

Venue Details

Acadiana Center for the Arts - general

101 W Vermilion St
Lafayette, Louisiana 70501-6915

Acadiana Center for the Arts

Our mission is fostering art and culture in Acadiana.

Founded in 1975, Acadiana Center for the Arts (“AcA”) is a community-supported nonprofit organization that fosters art and culture in Acadiana. Since its founding, AcA has developed as a major force, shaping the future of public education and community development in South Louisiana.

AcA supports the creation of new works of art, exhibits, festivals, performances, and public art across an eight-parish region that includes Acadia, Evangeline, Iberia, Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion Parishes.

AcA aims to bring equitable access to the arts and supports fair compensation of artists. On average, AcA serves over 300,000 people annually and provides fair compensation to 2,700 artists.

In 2013, the AcA merged with the Performing Arts Society of Acadiana (“PASA”), whose mission was to educate, inspire, entertain, and culturally enrich the people of south Louisiana by providing local access to a diverse range of the performing arts. This merger supported the vision of both organizations and provided much-needed support to PASA’s programs. Founded in 1989, PASA served as a leading voice in the performing arts in South Louisiana for close to three decades.

Find more Acadiana Center for the Arts Events and Performing & Visual Arts events in Lafayette