Page 118 - South Mississippi Living - December, 2018

GIVING BACK lifelong learning
WALTER ANDERSON MUSEUM
OF ART
Contributes to quality of life
story by Lynn Lofton
photos courtesy of
Walter Anderson Museum of Art
In downtown Ocean Springs, the Walter Anderson Museum of Art (WAMA) is a popular stop for visitors and Coast residents. It was founded
in 1991 by the family and passionate supporters of the late artist (1903-1965) whose luminous career as a painter, printmaker, decorator, designer, and explorer of the natural world make him one of the 20th century’s most compelling American artists. The museum has created a vital center for arts enrichment and study through educational programs, publications, and exhibitions.
“WAMA believes in continuity
to the past even as it continues to respond to the needs of contemporary communities,” Executive Director Julian Rankin says. “It was founded on the need to collect, protect, conserve, and exhibit the art of Walter Anderson and the Anderson family. Today, the
museum is articulating a fresh vision for increased collaboration, expansion, and interdisciplinary education on the Gulf Coast and beyond.”
He adds that WAMA would not exist without community support and dedicated members. “The museum
is committed to contributing to quality of life, lifelong learning, and creative placemaking on the Gulf Coast. Anderson’s immense early 1950s murals in the Ocean Springs Community Center, attached to WAMA, embody the artist’s civic commitment,” he said. “Balancing this public art is The Little Room, the artist’s most private space during his life, decorated floor to ceiling with
symphonic articulations of nature that offer visitors a place of refuge and contemplation”
Rankin said, “As the artist’s wife, Agnes Grinstead Anderson, wrote of Walter Anderson in support of WAMA’s opening, ‘There is magic between man and his habitat ... He caught the vision of this magic.’”
In 2019, WAMA will reinstall its permanent collection, announce new initiatives and programs, and reassert the importance of the Anderson legacy.
Walter Anderson Museum of Art
510 Washington Ave., Ocean Springs 228.872.3164 www.walterandersonmuseum.org
BACOT/MCCARTY FOUNDATION
A Portion Of This Sponsorship Goes To Support Our Local Charities Along The Coast
WWW.BACOTMCCARTY.ORG
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