The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities has named Pam Atchison, former director of the Shreveport Regional Arts Council, as the 2026 Champion of Culture as part of its 41st annual Bright Lights Awards.
The Champion of Culture honor recognizes individuals who have made lasting contributions to preserving, promoting, and advancing Louisiana’s cultural heritage. Atchison was selected for her decades-long leadership in the arts and her role in strengthening cultural access, advocacy, and creative development in northwest Louisiana.
Atchison served as executive director of the Shreveport Regional Arts Council for 38 years, leading the area’s largest arts nonprofit. The organization develops partnerships, produces programming, educates the community, and advocates for art and artists across Northwest Louisiana. She began working with the council as an artist-in-residence in the 1980s, during a period of financial instability for the organization.
Over the course of her tenure, Atchison expanded the council into a $3 million-per-year organization and launched ArtBreak, a citywide youth arts initiative designed to broaden access to creative education. Following an arson fire that destroyed the council’s offices, she worked with the City of Shreveport to relocate SRAC to the historic downtown Central Fire Station. The move helped spark renewed interest in adaptive reuse of historic buildings along Shreveport’s Texas Street corridor.
Atchison retired from the Shreveport Regional Arts Council in December 2024.
She is among several honorees announced this year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. Other 2026 Bright Lights Award recipients include Michael Doucet, musician and founder of BeauSoleil, named Humanist of the Year; the RosaMary and Keller Family Foundations, recipients of the Chair’s Award for Institutional Support; Kevin Rabalais, Documentary Photographer of the Year; Thomas Patterson, author of “American Populist: Huey Long of Louisiana,” recognized with the Humanities Book of the Year award; Sascha Just, whose film “What We Can Know About Edmond and Basile” earned Humanities Documentary Film of the Year; Don Marshall, honored for Lifetime Contributions to the Humanities; and Debra Jo Hailey, recipient of the Light Up for Literacy award.
For more than 40 years, the Bright Lights Awards have recognized individuals and organizations whose work strengthens the humanities statewide, including historians, authors, filmmakers, photographers, literacy advocates, and cultural leaders.
The 2026 awardees will be featured in the summer issue of 64 Parishes magazine, published by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and formally recognized at the Bright Lights Awards Dinner on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge. Tickets are available through the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities website.