As Pike School of Art – Mississippi joyously enters 2022, we want to express our appreciation to you for helping make our 2021, despite the infernal pandemic, one of our best years yet. Here are a few of our greatest accomplishments of 2021:
In January, PSA-MS board members Kev Brown and Sara Doman organized the 2nd Annual Perspectives From Generations Beyond The Dream, honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. The 3rd Annual exhibition, once again cosponsored by PSA-MS and Y.U.N.G. Citizens, is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 17 at St. Andrew’s Activity Center from 10am till 4:30pm.
In February, we distributed Winter 2021 Art Bags through our friends at Y.U.N.G. Citizens and other community partners. We will continue this highly popular program in 2022, which initially began as a response to COVID and social distancing.
On April 24, we organized the 2021 Earth Day Fest with headlining artist Red Sugar Blues. The fest received a Mississippi Arts Commission Community Response Grant to host the event. We have already received funding from a Visit Mississippi Tourism grant, so save the date: April 23, 2022.
In May, we hosted “Kendal Miller: Tensile,” a photography exhibition at the newly opened 207 Bistro & Blues in Downtown McComb. Also in May, visiting artist Charles Edward Williams made his first trip to McComb to work on his project Forward. For Williams to return and complete the project in 2022 — which will consist of a live performance, a video document of the performance, a limited-edition vinyl album, a panel discussion, and our very first artist publication — we have received funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Mississippi Humanities Council, and South Arts.
In June, we received COVID relief from the Alternate ROOTS Solidarity Fund to help us maintain our programs for the rest of the year. We also received a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant in the amount of $25,000 to help the City of McComb establish a master cultural plan for the newly created McComb Arts & Entertainment District.
In September and October we had a few Pike School of Art Volunteer Days at the former jail to prepare it for community use in 2022. We participated in the 2nd Annual Summit Street Unity Festival. We led a Mississippi Arts Commission Mini Grant Workshop at the McComb branch of the Pike-Amite-Walthall Library System.
In November, with the backing of the newly formed PSA Acquisition Fund Committee, we were able to purchase our second artwork by “The Rhinestone Cowboy,” Loy Bowlin. We had previously purchased a small work on paper in April.
Closing out the year, on Sunday, December 12th, we hosted the first-ever PSA/CSA Release Party & Brunch at Local Works. Our first Community Supported Art portfolio consists of work by local artists Sara Doman, Lisa Ipolitto, Kendal Miller, Sherilyn Rogers, Jonathan Scott and Jolean Smith.
Pike School of Art – Mississippi’s mission since its founding in 2016 is to build a thriving community by enriching and empowering artists and allies in Southwest Mississippi.
If you would like to support us, please make your tax-deductible donation to Pike School of Art – Mississippi via the link at www.psa-ms.org/support or mail a check to P.O. Box 446, Summit, MS 39666.
Calvin Phelps
PSA-MS Director
