Arts programming in the Old Municipal Building and the East Bank Plaza are both now back under Bossier City’s direct management. Soon there will be a dedicated employee running the show, and, for Shane Cheatham, “the sky’s the limit.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Bossier City Chief Administrative Officer Shane Cheatham speaks to Bossier City Council on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, during a meeting of the Council at Bossier City Civic Center in Bossier City, La.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n Cheatham, the city’s chief administrative officer, first explained the position when the City Council approved it last month as they voted to evict<\/a> the Bossier Arts Council from the Old Municipal Building after the organization failed to send required financial reports to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n The idea was to keep the building from sitting empty and to honor plans for upcoming programming by having the BAC or its partners book through this building director. But the vision for the role he and Council President Chris Smith expressed on Friday was a bit more expansive, and it may prove central to their goals of building “downtown Bossier City” into a bona fide entertainment destination<\/a>\u00a0with its own district.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n For one, and most concretely, Cheatham wants to challenge the new hire to come up with Bossier City’s very own festival.<\/p>\n “Shreveport has the Revel, they have the Mud Bug madness,” he said. “… I foresee challenging this person with helping us create a Bossier City, you know, yearly event that’s centered around art and music and theater.”<\/p>\n “I don’t know right now what that festival is, but I’m hoping whoever the East Bank Arts Building\/Plaza Events Manager is that they can have conversations with people in our art community,” he continued. “You know, is it a food festival? Is it an art festival? What exactly do we do there?”<\/p>\n Beyond that, the future shape of the role is a little uncertain, especially because the BAC is working toward getting back into compliance<\/a> with state financial reporting requirements and may want to enter a new agreement with the city and move back into the East Bank District. In that unpredictable longer term, Council President Smith said the city’s new employee might be more focused on the entertainment district as a whole.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Motorists travel on Barksdale Boulevard past The Seventh Tap East Bank and other businesses in the East Bank District of Bossier City, La., Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n “So from our perspective, we were always going to need a city employee for that part of it,” Smith said. “… It’s very possible that it could just go back to how it was and the BAC’s running it but this employee is more focused on the greater entertainment district. Or it could be that they continue to property manage the building while focused more on the greater entertainment district. I think a lot of that is just not known.”<\/p>\n Plans to form an entertainment district in Bossier City stretching from Chasing Aces through the Boardwalk and East Bank District down to Live! Casino went public<\/a> in December, and the city has recently taken steps toward realizing it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n They turned much of the Boardwalk and riverfront into an open container district<\/a> to accompany the East Bank, and Smith says they’re continuously working with the Boardwalk’s ownership on their plans to revitalize the property by reorienting from big box retail<\/a>. Cheatham said he didn’t\u00a0have any immediate next steps to announce, but that they had a meeting this week to discuss the economic side of it, which Smith has previously said may include tax incentives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Two patrons walking through the Louisiana Boardwalk Outlets in Bossier City, La., on June 10, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n By JILL PICKETT | Staff photographer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
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\n By JILL PICKETT | Staff photographer<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
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