JACKSON, MISS.- This summer, the Mississippi Museum of Art will de-install the entirety of its permanent exhibition gallery space to prepare for an unprecedented bicentennial exhibition exploring two centuries of Mississippi statehood. Beginning August 21, 8,500 square feet of gallery space – currently containing the ongoing, free exhibition titled The Mississippi Story – will be transformed to make room for Picturing Mississippi, 1817-2017: Land of Plenty, Pain, and Promise, the largest art exhibition about Mississippi identity ever conceived, which in its totality will cover more than 16,000 square feet of gallery space.

The majority of the approximately two hundred objects currently on view in The Mississippi Story will return to the Museum’s vault during the run of Picturing Mississippi. In Fall of 2018, following the bicentennial exhibition, the Museum will install a reimagining of The Mississippi Story complete with new stories and voices, new acquisitions, new technologies, and fresh perspective – driven by public dialogue, visitor input, and emerging contemporary narratives. The public can participate in farewell programs, follow the progress behind-the-scenes, and share feedback as part of “The Story Continues…” campaign at www.msmuseumart.org.

The Mississippi Story was curated by art historian Patti Carr Black and installed in 2007 in conjunction with the opening of the Museum’s modern building. A quote by Eudora Welty contextualized this thematic exploration of Mississippi art: “It seems to me that the art that speaks most clearly, explicitly, directly and passionately from its place of origin will remain the longest understood,” Welty wrote.

“The Mississippi Story was created to evoke a sense of place and to explore what it means to be immersed in Mississippi. It has served visitors spectacularly, a tribute to the vision of curator and Mississippi treasure Patti Carr Black.” said Betsy Bradley, Director of the Mississippi Museum of Art. “In the decade since we opened that exhibition, the Museum and the community have continued to evolve and grow. When we de-install the galleries of The Mississippi Story this summer and fall, it will not be a conclusion, but a continuation. We will immediately begin installing Picturing Mississippi, an unprecedented exploration of Mississippi identity through visual art, opening December 9, 2017. Meanwhile, we will be inviting public dialogue on multiple fronts about what stories, technologies, and experiences will compose the reimagined and expanded Mississippi Story exhibition of the future.”

The Story Continues…
Leading up to, and during, the de-installation process, the Museum will offer engagement activities and programming. Visitors can participate in self-guided tour of The Mississippi Story through Sunday, August 20. On August 11 and 18, visitors can enjoy “Off-Record Gallery Talks,” behind the scenes talks with longtime Museum staff. During the August 17 Museum After Hours, the public is invited to a farewell evening tour. From August 22-25, stop in for The Mississippi Story Unframed, a first-hand glimpse into the process of de-installation. After the de-installation is complete, visitors can view One Wall: Feature from the Permanent Collection, from August 22–September 4, where one artwork from the permanent collection is displayed, rotating every two weeks.

The Mississippi Story book is available for sale in The Museum Store. Cataloguing the entire exhibition as it was initially installed, the book allows The Mississippi Story to be shared with future generations.

Picturing Mississippi
Picturing Mississippi, the sixteenth presentation in The Annie Laurie Swaim Hearin Memorial Exhibition Series, opens December 9, 2017 and continues through July 8, 2018. The exhibition will be free and open to the public.

The aesthetic goal of the exhibition is to assemble original artworks in various media of the highest quality to illuminate the perception and depiction of Mississippi over more than two centuries. Containing at least 175 works by more than 100 different artists, the exhibition is unprecedented in the history of the state. Many of these works will be lent by prestigious national institutions such as the Harvard University Art Museums; the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Featured will be individual masterpieces by artists seldom exhibited in the state, including George Caleb Bingham, Robert Indiana, James Audubon, Louis Bahin, Thomas Hart Benton, and John Steuart Curry– as well as a plethora of works by native Mississippians such as James Tooley, Jr., Eudora Welty, William Dunlap, and Randy Hayes.

The exhibition will proceed chronologically and thematically, giving visitors the opportunity to perceive the evolving depiction of Mississippi – first by foreign-born artists as a place of immense beauty and prosperity, and later as a land laid waste by civil war, farmed by sharecroppers, fractured by segregation, and changed forever by the struggle for civil rights. Eventually, new voices rose to express the extraordinary artistic creativity of Mississippians of all races.

A significant component of the bicentennial exhibition will also feature art made in response to the events, victims, and heroes of the civil rights movement in the South, dovetailing with exhibitions on display at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History. Sponsors for Picturing Mississippi include the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation, Mississippi Development Authority, Ross & Yerger, BancorpSouth, Trustmark, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, Bradley, Nissan, and Mississippi Media, among many others.