Ms. Kim Bergeron
In 2009, as then-director of Cultural & Public Affairs for the City of Slidell, Louisiana, Kim joined forces with the local Chamber of Commerce to create the East St. Tammany Parish Cultural Economy Coalition. The grassroots effort was created to bring together artists, arts organizations and cultural economy stakeholders to support artists and to build awareness as to the intrinsic and economic impact of arts and culture. That organization has since grown to serve multiple parishes (counties) on the upper shores of Lake Pontchartrain, just north of New Orleans, and has been rebranded as Northshore Cultural Economy Coalition.
Kim’s unique approach to arts fundraising and her production and marketing of cultural events have been recognized with numerous regional and national awards from organizations including the National League of Cities, City-County Community and Marketing Association and two Louisiana Lt. Governors. Some of her volunteer fundraising efforts centered around arts have been chronicled on a blog she created for that purpose, www.RightBrainDiaries.com. Those efforts led to the founding of a new organization, Artists & Causes, LLC, designed to connect creatives with non profits for mutually beneficial fundraising efforts.
Kim is a magna cum laude graduate from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette,) from which she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in applied arts and minors in English and photography.