Mississippi Monday | Mississippi Museum of Art
As you may have seen over on our Instagram, this coming Thursday, February 18th is the After Hours event series at the Mississippi Museum of Art! What a great way to get our community out and supporting our local creators! We are delighted to be apart of such a great event! Some fellow Thimble Team members will also be showing off some work they have been working oh so hard on! Today, we are excited to have Julian, from the Museum, explaining a little more about this super fun event!
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When did the Third-Thursdays Museum After Hours event series begin at the MS Museum of Art? Museum After Hours kicked off in its current format on Third Thursdays in March 2015. What inspired this event series to begin with? The Museum was looking at ways to combine previously-existing events like Screen on the Green and happy hour programs to create a dynamic monthly event that leveraged the synergy of increased activity while creating a space to embrace Mississippi’s contemporary creative and artistic landscape. We added to the evening a pop up restaurant by our Executive Chef and Culinary Curator Nick Wallace and expanded the components of the night to include food truck festivals and live music. Thanks to public support, the event continued to grow into its own, becoming an altogether larger and more engaging event that we had initially planned.
How do you all choose the monthly theme or featured artist ? Along with ideas and input from staff members, the public, and the creative community, we plan the pop up exhibitions based on content, medium, theme, or other cultural connective tissue. The goal is to build a schedule that represents the diversity of the work being made in the state, from print makers and furniture builders to glass artists, painters, sculptors, and filmmakers. How do you think this event series is helping to shape the local community and/or the image of Mississippi? Museum After Hours is our small way of having a conversation with visitors and the community about all the great things happening in the state. Museums traditionally collect and exhibit art on a long timeline –geologic time, if you will – so we wanted this event to represent the more immediate creation that is happening all the time in Mississippi neighborhoods, businesses, and artist studios. 
How could a person interested in being featured or volunteering with events get involved? Individuals can email ThirdThursday@msmuseumart.org to get involved. While we can’t guarantee that every artist will fit into our short term schedule, we hope that the public continues to share new ideas and new art so that Museum After Hours can continue to represent the community it serves. In addition to artists, we are also eager to hear from other organizations, businesses, and community partners who want to tell their artistic and cultural stories through the Museum After Hours platform. 
What does this series or community involvement for the MS Museum of Art look like 5 years from now? Is there a long-term outlook plan? Our long term hope for the event is that it will continue to be a resource for the public to discover contemporary Mississippi art, to share ideas with one another, and to participate in Mississippi’s ever-growing creative economy. Ultimately, these community events help us learn more about our supporters and visitors, so that we can build future exhibitions and events with our diverse community in mind. More than anything, we hope the event will mirror the energy and excitement that exists beyond the Museum’s walls; whatever Museum After Hours becomes, it will be guided in large part by the people who participate in it and enjoy it.
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Want to know more about Third Thursdays? Come see us THIS Thursday 5:30-10pm at the MS Museum of Art:
380 S Lamar St, Jackson, MS 39201
or find more about the Art Museum here:
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