Page 54 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2026

Welcome
To The Festival
Welcome to Ocean Springs and the 48th Annual
Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival!
There is something pretty special about this weekend.
For nearly five decades, artists, makers, musicians,
families, businesses, and visitors have gathered in the
heart of Ocean Springs to celebrate creativity and the
remarkable artistic legacy of the Anderson family.
CYNTHIA SUTTON
This year, we are excited to bring back some of the
CEO & President,
experiences that have become part of the festival
Ocean Springs Chamber-Main
weekend while adding a few new ways to enjoy it, too.
Street-Tourism Bureau
The Blue Moon Experience returns to Government
Street, giving festivalgoers a chance to step away
from the shopping and get creative with a fun, hands-on activity: paint your own Blue Moon
pint glass. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Blue Moon national team and
F.E.B. Distributing locally to bring this experience to Ocean Springs. It is a fun little reminder
that the festival is about more than what you take home in a shopping bag—it’s also about the
memories you make along the way.
New this year is our mixology experience, featuring some of our own local restaurants and
talented bartenders. It is another way to showcase the creativity found right here in Ocean
Springs while giving festivalgoers something new to taste and experience during the weekend.
And this year brought another first for the festival: our first-ever Peter Anderson T-Shirt
Artwork Contest. Working alongside Shearwater Pottery and members of the Anderson
family, we invited artists to create a design inspired by the family’s incredible legacy. We are
especially proud that this year’s winning artist, local Coast artist Adam Plitt, who captured that
legacy in such a beautiful and meaningful way. His design brings Peter Wade Anderson, his
pottery and the Anderson family story together in a piece we are proud to wear.
These are just a few examples of what makes this festival so much more than a weekend of
shopping.
It takes a tremendous amount of collaboration to bring the Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts
Festival to life. Artists, volunteers, businesses, sponsors, city departments, churches,
community organizations and countless individuals all play a part.
We are especially grateful to our friends at First Baptist Church of Ocean Springs, who once
again are opening their doors to provide a “Rooms for Moms” space for nursing mothers and
families attending the festival. It is a simple but meaningful example of how our community
continues to find ways to welcome everyone.
And, of course, none of this would be possible without the hundreds of artists and crafters
who travel from near and far to share their work with us, or the volunteers and businesses
who help make Ocean Springs such a welcoming place to visit.
So, take your time. Mark your calendars. Wander the streets. Meet an artist. Find something
you can’t leave without. Listen to some music. Try something new. Grab a bite. Paint a pint.
Visit our shops and restaurants. And take a little time to experience the people and places
that make Ocean Springs unique.
Slow down. Explore. Experience Ocean Springs.
We hope you make memories, discover something wonderful and leave already looking
forward to next year.
sponsors
PRESENTING
DOUBLE DIAMOND
PLATINUM
GOLD
SILVER
PUBLISHED BY
Ocean Springs
Chamber of Commerce Main Street —
Tourism Bureau
1000 Washington Ave.,
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
228.875.4424
www.oceanspringschamber.com
TM
IN COOPERATION
M2 Media Corp.
12268 Intraplex Pkwy., Gulfport, MS 39503
228.385.7703
Publisher: Michael Sunderman
Editor: Kelsey Sunderman-Foster
Account Execs:
Jennifer Cox, Suzette Carlson, Jim McCloskey
Designers: Kevin Brouillette II, John Sukmann,
Brian Treadaway
Contributing Writers: Lynn Lofton, Cherie Ward
Contributing Photographers:
Fred Salinas, Arielle Victoria
BRONZE
54 | October 2026 www.smliving.net | SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living