Picturing Mississippi, 1817-2017: Land of Plenty, Pain, and Promise

The centerpiece of the Museum’s bicentennial initiatives, Picturing Mississippi commemorates and celebrates the 200th anniversary of statehood for Mississippi, admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817, as the 20th state. Its aesthetic goal 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. With at least 135 works by more than 100 different artists, the exhibition is unprecedented in the history of Mississippi.

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, held in check 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.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.