OOMA Membership Drive Enters Final Stretch

OOMA’s Annual Membership Drive ends on September 1st. This is the last chance to take advantage of the 20% discount on membership levels available on our website. Here are 5 great reasons to become a museum member today!

Invitations to museum events

Members get the first chance to opt-in to our mailing lists for breaking news about our opening receptions and after-hours events ranging from free and fun community events on the museum grounds, to extravagant parties off-campus, to our annual Horn Island Expedition (a 4-day camping expedition dedicated to tapping into the artistic spirit by communing with nature and fellow artists).

Free admission to our Annual Member Party

Members are invited as VIPs to our annual member party with a plus one for a friend. This year, the Mad Potter Block Party was a huge hit that involved free BBQ plates, artsy activities, and our very own George Ohr riding into our Mississippi Sound Welcome Center on an Indian Motorcycle – just as he would have back in his prime!

10% Discount in the Museum Store

The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art store sells the work of local ceramicists and artists from across the Southeastern United States. There is always something new showing up on the store shelves and as a member, you’ll receive 10% off your orders online and in the store. Our online selection will be expanding to include art, books, and clothing that you can have shipped straight to your house if you don’t have the time to stop in while you’re visiting.

10% Discount on Classes & Workshops

The museum’s City of Biloxi Center for Ceramics features classes for all ages! As a member, you’ll take advantage of 10% off all classes and workshops available in our world-class pottery studio featuring 10+ pottery wheels, 2 electric kilns, and a full-size gas kiln capable of firings up to cone 10.

10% Facility Event Rentals

Members get first dibs and a 10% discount on facility event rental reservations. Make your next party, wedding, bridal shower, work convention or meeting into the talk of the town when you bring your guests to the Frank Gehry-designed campus of the Ohr-O’Keefe museum of art!

 

Those are just 5 of the many reasons to become a member at OOMA. Along with those reasons you’ll become a supporter and an integral part of a community of support for the legacy of George Ohr and our art community as a whole on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Get your membership today and become a part of The Mad Potter Society. Join in on the madness now!

/by

Zach Harris Opening Reception Draws a Crowd

Zach Harris’s Opening Reception was this Thursday, August 1st, and drew a crowd of around 100 people. The gathering was planned as a celebration of Harris’s sculptures as they interact with the museum’s Frank Gehry-designed-buildings and the Live Oaks on the campus. Harris was present to speak with museum members and visitors about the work. Harris’s artist statement speaks of his intentions with the body of work:

Inorganic Accoutrements

Zachary Harris was born and resides in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Mississippi State University in 2011 and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Georgia in 2018. In 2012, Harris was awarded a commission by Jackson County for a work to be permanently placed on the campus of the Jackson County General Services Complex in Pascagoula, MS.

Harris has a passion for framing his influence of nature and for the well-designed. He views his sculptures as archetypes in choreographed space. His works project themselves form the ground with a force-like entelechy. Etching themselves into the presence of the viewer. His background includes dabbling in subjects of land conservation, environmental system design specific to park design, watershed management systems, landscape architecture, and Design Thinking.

Using his affinity for tectonics, Harris invites participants and viewers to experience a familiar space in a new way. He believes his objects to enhance a view while more importantly enhancing the experience of a viewer.

The works are less about their title or what he was thinking and are more about projecting an opportunity for a viewer to foster an interior dialogue of which his motives become constructively and divergently separate from the artist and his vision for the viewer. It is here that Harris manipulates dense inert materials to balance with environment freeing them from finite definition.

As with all opening receptions at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, admission was free for every exhibit on view during the event. Wine and light hors d’oeuvres were served. A welcome new addition to the event was Makin’ Groceries, a new local catering service. They provided shrimp tacos with yum yum slaw that were an incredible hit, selling out just before the event concluded. Thank you to everyone that came, and be sure to mark the next opening reception on your calendar. More info on new exhibits is coming later this month!

/by