Alumni of Eureka, Royal Street, Rowan and Hattiesburg High Schools gathered at Eureka for their bi-annual class reunion June 28-July 3, 2022.
Darryl Anderson's water-colored exhibition, Colored - A Perspective, was a part of FestivalSouth 2022 lineup. The exhibition featured over 25 watercolor paintings from Anderson's travels throughout Hattiesburg, Jackson, and Vicksburg, MS.
A native of Los Angeles, CA, Anderson has lived in Mississippi most of his life. He is a graduate of Provine High School in Jackson, MS. Anderson’s journey as an artist took flight when he was working as a switchboard operator at Hinds County Detention Center. He was seen sketching at his desk by the then sheriff Malcolm McMillin who noticed Anderson’s talent and gave him a watercolor set to “try” something new. Anderson later received a book from a friend by Mississippi artist Wyatt Waters. He loved Water’s unique style and began taking his art classes. Falling in love with scenes of the South as a child, Anderson, translated those scenes with watercolor hues and a brush. He now travels throughout the south with a vagabond approach to each painting.
“My paintings are vibrant but not exact,” said Anderson. “I gather information from field painting, capturing the colors of my chosen subject. I often use a camera, then combine my emotional responses to life. All of my artwork is dedicated to my mother, Sandra Teresa Gautier Anderson.”
Hattiesburg hosted the Mississippi Historical Society Annual Meeting on March 10-11, 2022. Members spent the final day of the meeting at the Eureka School attending sessions on Commemorating and Preserving Local African American History and Mississippi Change Agents.
A Cast of Blues exhibition opened Saturday, September 11 and ran through October 9, 2021, at the Historic Eureka School in Downtown Hattiesburg. The exhibition is a celebration of Mississippi’s rich musical heritage and featured 15 resin-cast masks of blues legends created by artist Sharon McConnell-Dickerson. “A life cast is like a 3D photograph to someone who is blind,” says McConnell-Dickerson, who is visually impaired herself. “It captures the flesh, muscle, bone, hair, and subtle expressions of emotion. I wanted to discover the faces behind the music I love, so I went to Mississippi to map out the visages of the real Delta blues men and women.”
The exhibition also included 15 color photographs of blues artists and the colorful juke joints in which they played. The images are selected from acclaimed photographer Ken Murphy’s ground-breaking book, Mississippi: State of Blues. Murphy, a longtime resident of Bay St. Louis, MS, captures the essence of the blues through highly detailed, panoramic color pictures. The compilation of casts and photos creates a compelling portrait of the men and women who defined—and continue to shape—the tradition of Mississippi blues.
