McComb artist Charles Crossley continues to receive recognition for his unique artwork. His latest honor is a Mississippi Arts and Letters award for visual arts.
Crossley joins eight other honorees, who will be recognized June 5 at the 31st annual MIAL banquet in Jackson. His exhibition “Charles Crossley: Textures, Shapes and Forms of Spirits,” earned him the honor.
Crossley is a longtime McComb resident and has taught art in area schools for a number of years. He owns the McComb Studio of Art and Design.
Mississippi has long been a hotbed of creativity and the current crop of Mississippi Arts and Letters award winners continues blazing a trail in that tradition.
The MIAL awards honor works published or presented in 2009 in seven categories, plus two special awards, including Lifetime Achievement Award winner William Ferris.
“It means everything when you’re recognized by people at home,” said Ferris, history professor and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Ferris, former National Endowment for the Humanities chairman, was the founding director for the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.
The 31st annual awards also brings him a chance to see a former student, contemporary/pop musical composition award winner Caroline Herring (for her album “Golden Apples of the Sun”) — one of several creative crossroads of institutions and inspiration among winners.
“It does show that the arts are thriving in Mississippi and in Mississippians outside of our state,” said 2009-’10 MIAL president Mark Wiggs. “We want to see a substantial connection with the state and that’s who we honor.”
Award recipients also include:
• Poetry — D.C. Berry, for “Hamlet OffStage.”
• Fiction — Frederick Barthelme for “Waveland.”
• Nonfiction — Charles W. Eagles for “The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss.”
• Photography — Michael Loyd Young for his book “Blues Booze and BBQ.”
• Musical Composition (classical-concert) — Sandy Phillips for “Sonata No. 2,” for flute and organ.
• Special achievement Award — “The Passions of Walter Anderson: A Dramatic Celebration of the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” an interdisciplinary work of drama, art, music and dance performed at the 2009 Oxford Conference for the Book. It was a creative collaboration by Jimmyle Listenbee, Amanda Malloy, Kevin Malloy, Alex Mauney, Rhona Justice-Malloy, Jared Spears and Michael Barnett.
Winners must have significant ties to the state. They were selected from about 50 nominations submitted by MIAL members and chosen in a juried competition by out-of-state judges who are leaders in the category fields. Winners in the juried categories receive a $1,000 cash prize and a Mississippi-made gift.
