One does not often think of a courthouse and art in the same thought, but on Thursday, April 18th, 2024, this courthouse introduced a new piece to its art collection. The 19th JDC and the Arts Council of Baton Rouge hosted an artist’s reception to honor artist Malaika Favorite. The installation consists of four separate mixed media panels entitled “We are Louisiana” and “We are the People #1, 2 and 3” and represent a sense of community that the court wishes to convey.
Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the City of Baton Rouge, the four panels will now greet all visitors to the courthouse in a prominent position above the information desk. It is hard to believe that these pieces were not created specifically for this space. The addition of art to the entrance of the state district courthouse provides an element of warmth and comfort that is not often felt upon entering the austere halls of justice. It is the hope that this touch of warmth will ease the experience of those who enter the courthouse.
Malaika Favorite is an artist and poet from Geismar, Louisiana. In 1965, she became the first African American to integrate Ascension Parish Schools when she transferred to the eleventh grade. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She taught at Grambling State University, Louisiana State University, and as an artist-in-residence at several local schools before devoting herself full-time to her own work. After living in Georgia for twenty years, she returned to Louisiana in 2016.
Malaika’s artwork has been widely exhibited and is represented in many private and public collections, including the Alexandria Museum of Art, Louisiana Arts & Science Museum, Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Morris Museum of Southern Art, and River Road African American Museum. Among her commissions, she has created artworks for Absolut Vodka, Coca-Cola Company, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, West Baton Rouge Museum, and most recently a mural for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, opening in late 2024 at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando.
