MSMuseumArt.org
Title
Mississippi Museum of Art
Description
You can now make a donation online to the Mississippi Museum of Art! All the wonderful exhibitions, events and educational programs at MMA are made possible by the generous support of its patrons! Simply enter the amount you would like to donate, and your information will be sent to the Museum via a secure server.
As Mississippi's largest art museum, the Mississippi Museum of Art is home to some very extraordinary works of art. And it's not simply the best in local and regional art that we have on display. Every year, some of the best exhibitions in the nation come to Jackson.
In 2003, the Mississippi Museum of Art marked its 100th anniversary as the state’s repository and exhibitor of local, regional, national, and international art. Not unlike other Mississippi arts organizations, the Museum had humble beginnings. The organization’s seed was the Art Study Club founded in 1903 in Jackson by Miss Bessie Cary Lemly, an artist and art professor at then all-female Belhaven College. Twice a month, Miss Lemly invited some “town ladies” to join her and her students to enjoy tea and discuss art. In 1911, the Mississippi State Fair commissioners contacted Miss Lemly and the Art Study Club members to ask that they furnish an exhibition of paintings by local artists for display at that year’s State Fair. That request sparked the idea for an organization that could regularly exhibit artwork for public viewing. Thus, the Mississippi Art Association was created in October of 1911 at the State Fair, and its first meeting was held in a buggy tent to avoid the noise and confusion of the Fair crowd! Fast forward sixty-seven years to 1978. The current facility opened its doors in April of that year, along with a name change to the Mississippi Museum of Art, Inc.
