Hammond Regional Arts Center

The Hammond Regional Arts Center runs rotating exhibitions in a renovated historic building on East Thomas Street, a few blocks from the Southeastern Louisiana University campus. The shows range from regional photography to experimental installations, with free admission for most exhibitions. The 'Playing the Staircase' listening series uses the building's stairwell for acoustic programs. Tangipahoa Parish drains into Lake Pontchartrain, the 630-square-mile estuary that connects to the Gulf of Mexico through the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass. The lake receives fresh water from the Tangipahoa, Tchefuncte, Tickfaw, Amite, and Bogue Falaya rivers—part of a 10,000-square-mile watershed that includes sixteen Louisiana parishes. The estuary formed 4,000 to 2,600 years ago as the Mississippi River Delta built its southern and eastern shorelines with alluvial deposits. Human habitation began at least 3,500 years ago; the Indigenous name for the lake was Okwata, 'wide water.' Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville renamed it in 1699 for Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Pontchartrain, France's Minister of the Marine. The arts center occupies a North Shore town shaped by that estuary system. Workshops, lectures, and community events make it the primary visual arts venue for the parish—a functional gallery in a university town, walking distance from campus, operating on what the brief supports and what visitors actually see.