This month, a mural honoring the historic figures and businesses of the Four Corners neighborhood was supposed to start blooming on the walls of the University Avenue underpass near Cameron Street — that was until Mayor-President Monique Boulet recently put the project on ice.
Boulet says she terminated the $100,000 contract with Tampa-based muralist Narus Carlos Jefferson because of ongoing construction along the corridor, which has been the subject of increased controversy in recent months.
The decision came as a disappointment to members of Lafayette’s Public Art Network, a collection of artists, cultural officials and coterie members, who had worked for years to identify the right location, artist and design for a public arts project in the area.
“I was extremely disappointed to find this out after working so closely with the community and getting to know the artist,” Clare Cook, director of local nonprofit Basin Arts, tells The Current. “We were so close to having something so special.”
Cook says the collective was informed of the mayor-president’s decision last month.
“We weren’t really brought into this update until [the project] was already not going to happen,” says Cook, who helped facilitate conversations and connections between Lafayette Consolidated Government and the artist.
Movement on the project started around the end of 2024, after Basin Arts contracted with LCG to be a partner on the project, engage with the community, choose sites and facilitate art projects along University Avenue. After a year and a half of community engagement, the team narrowed the site to the underpass.
In November 2025, Basin Arts called for applications nationwide — receiving around 158 applications. A selection committee reviewed the first two rounds, and Boulet ultimately chose Jefferson.
While citing concerns over the ongoing construction, Boulet also introduced the possibility of changing the location and design of the mural.
“We have to finish the construction of the road,” Boulet says. “The artwork is not final, but it will probably need to be simplified. I have a concern that there’s so much information.”
Boulet says she isn’t cutting ties with the artist entirely, adding that while she terminated the contract, the project isn’t completely canned.
She says she hopes the project can be reintroduced, possibly at a different site.
Jefferson is a Tampa, Florida-based artist who cut his teeth in Brooklyn, New York City, Cook says. He has a history of working on large, community-driven public art projects that detail historic figures and places.
“Without making a specific guarantee, there’s some potential opportunity for the project to be even bigger than what this was,” International Trade and Development Division Director George Marks tells The Current. “[Plans] are unknown right now until we have a specific understanding of what we can actually do on University Avenue.”
Jefferson, who declined to be interviewed, is expected to be paid for the work he’s completed, which included a draft of the artwork and revisions. He told The Current in mid-September that he hadn’t heard anything from LCG on bringing back the project at a later date.
