Community Art Garden at the Museum

Over the last year and a half, the Ohr- O’Keefe Museum of Arts has created community garden beds near the Pleasant Reed Interpretive center. These planters have been a part of an education program between the Boys and Girls Club and the East Biloxi Community Collaborative and funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Mississippi Art Commission, and South Arts. This program was spearheaded by former education director, Emily Brannan, to teach local Biloxi youth about herbs, plants, and gardening.

Biloxi is unfortunately known as a food desert site and many in the community do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables or are priced out of healthy and organic options. A great deal of the students at the Boys and Girls Club of Biloxi were encountering these herbs and fruits for the first time straight from the garden bed. Part of their curriculum included learning how to identify plants in the herb garden and their health benefits. They were given activity books to log their observations in the garden and learn some meal ideas with fresh fruits and vegetables. In addition to these activities, our students also were able to combine art with their findings.

Students used materials in the garden to do abstract paintings, to journal drawings of the plants in the garden, and sample organic veggies straight from these beds. Their works of art were then showcased in the welcome center in our Education Gallery.

Last year, the museum was recognized for its partnership with the Boys and Girls Club with an award ceremony where this program went on to receive the Dynamic Group of the Year Award, for its educational impact.  We hope to continue to serve the community by continuing the garden beds and having fresh vegetables and herbs available to our neighbors and visitors alike.

This project is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mississippi Arts Commission.

 

 

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Interview with Artis Burney of Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary

In preparation for our A Day in Black History celebration at the museum this Saturday, we wanted to share some insight into the world of Artis Burney’s Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary. Last year for Juneteenth, Artis and the Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary performed on our campus and was a highlight of the day. This upcoming Black History celebration, we eagerly anticipating the Black History Living Wax Museum, which will be a poetic interpretation of key figures in Black History. We are so grateful to have creative spirits like Artis in our community and knowing more about his background just makes The Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary even more special.

OOMA: When did you first realize you wanted to be a poet? What started your interest in written and spoken word?
Artis: I realized I wanted to be a poet when I was about five years old. The first time I read the lyrics to a Sade song.

OOMA: What is the Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary and how did it form? 
The cosmic poetry sanctuary is a social experiment about peace and love. The BP oil spill basically killed my job. The world was afraid to come here. While I was making plans to leave radio I was having ideas about what I could do to not just help myself but help my community. I wrote poetry about and imagined a safe place. Since, dirty water and storms from climate change was exactly what had taken my career, I wanted to create  a real time artistic vision as an example of my views on extractive economies. I started clearing land originally as a stress release. And then as I cleared I had so many “wow” moments. Every time I would clear a new space, and carve a path to a new tree, I found myself saying wow and I wanted to share it with somebody. I invited some friends and they could see my vision too, so I kept working. I learned new new terms like “land stewardship”, food desert, and more importantly spoke to my community and they expressed similar concerns about water and energy.
OOMA: Cosmic poetry sanctuary seems to draw a lot from the natural and spiritual realm- what is important to you about bringing these topics to Biloxi, MS? 
AB: When I think Cosmic Poetry I think about God’s voice and how according to most holy books everything around us was spoken into existence. Additionally, before the organization and the space had a name my friends and I would do open mic poetry there. We forage with Lynda Baker there and teach. My family goes back on paper to 1735 on the land. My spirit feels connected to it.
OOMA: With your event at OOMA I see you are going to do a  Living Wax Museum Black History Program, what will this entail?
AB: it entails representatives from the cosmic poetry sanctuary and members of our community getting together and we share with each other a person that we think is important in the history of Black people in America.

OOMA: What excites you the most about returning to the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art for this program?

AB: The opportunity to perform live art inside of my favorite art museum on the Mississippi Gulf Coast always excite me. I’ve been performing at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art  since about 2007. I’m in love with the wow moments just like every other person that appreciates the artistic spirit. The Ohr-O’Keefe and Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary always delivers the wow moments.

You can follow Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary on Facebook and Instagram.

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Interview with resident artist, Hee Joo Yang

Later this week, our first artist-in-residence, Hee Joo Yang’s piece will be deinstalled and will become a part of our permanent collection. Hee Joo was our first artist-in-residence last summer and worked at the City of Biloxi’s Center for Ceramics on our campus to create her exhibition, The Caves. Originally from Seoul, Korea, this was Hee Joo’s first time in the South and while she was here, she experienced her first hurricane! We caught up with her to ask her about the residency and her time at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art.

 How did you get interested in ceramics? What attracted you to making things out of
clay?
Ceramics was the major I chose when I entered university in Korea. So, at first, I was completely unaware of it. However, I got interested when I started learning wheel throwing and hand building. It was fun to do both, each of them having their own unique texture, even while using the same clay. And more than anything else, it was essential to experience how I love all the processes of making a shape with my own hands and firing it in a kiln.

What was your residency like at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art? Were you here
for the hurricane?
This was my first residency and I was honored that the museum selected me as the first residency artist. Of course, there is going to be rain and wind wherever I go, but I never expected it to be a hurricane. While my clay was locked-up in Florida, I had a rewarding time coming up with ideas for making and collecting materials to use for the sound work. Most of all, I was fascinated by the Frank Gehry buildings called ‘The Pods.’ I worked hard for a short period to fill that space with my work. The many people I met at the studio were kind and supported the work I wanted to do so I could happily work.


What was your favorite part about Biloxi and making work in the South?
As it was my first visit to the South of the United States, I had high expectations. And the natural scenery of Biloxi perfectly lived up to those expectations. I was able to see such a beautiful beach every day, and the ever-changing sky and sea were amazing. However, since it was an area that was heavily damaged by a natural disaster, I was able to experience the scars that remain even after a lot of time had passed. Nevertheless, the power necessary to overcome it all and create a wonderful place to live in once again, was what motivated me to work with the hurricane I experienced.


How did your experience with partial deafness inform the fabrication of The Caves?
Partial deafness sometimes misses a lot. In addition, there are many things to be taken care of in daily life, so fatigue quickly builds up. Such tiredness makes me mentally and physically exhausted. In Korea, we often use the expression ‘going into the cave’ when we are in such a tired state. It has a negative meaning in a certain way as it cuts off all relationships and I disappear into time alone.

However, I thought of this cave as a healing space for myself. And I asked myself, what sounds did I hear from where I am now? I wanted to share an experience with myself or the audience exploring the unknown cave space while asking and answering questions about how it influenced me.

What are you working on right now?
Now I am examining ways of understanding myself through objects by focusing on giving form to invisible embodiments of states like emotions, memories, and experiences. This allows me to explore the circumstances surrounding me and ask: Where do I get inspiration from? What do I hear and feel? How do I process the memories of everything I have been through? Exploring these unshaped things in my studio work allows me to give form to my accumulated experience over time. This work synthesizes and catalogs my relationship with myself through the objectification of invisible things.

George Ohr was known as the mad potter of Biloxi, if you were going to give yourself a nickname based off of your work, what would it be?
Based on my work, I would like the nickname ‘Sound Searcher.’ Because sound is an inseparable sense from my life and work, it also gives me a lot of inspiration. I reinterpreting the sounds I have experienced and heard. Also, trying to visualize them with clay is one
of my important work methods. So, it can be said that this nickname is my own way of collecting and researching sounds.

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OOMA is a Blue Star Museum. 

Thanks to Blue Star Families, the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum is able to support our troops and offer free admission to active-duty military personnel and up to 5 family members! This offer is available until Labor Day, September 6.

U.S. Military personnel include the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard as well as Active Duty and Reservists, National Guardsman (regardless of status), U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps and NOAA Commissioned Corps.

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New Executive Director Selected for Ohr O’Keefe Museum of Art

The Board of Trustees for the Ohr O’Keefe Museum of Art has hired David Houston to take the reins at the museum starting this month. The board announced its decision after a four-month nationwide search.

Houston was named Chief Curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans in 2001. At the Ogden, he organized a wide range of exhibitions and programs that focused on the American South. He broke down barriers between art, music, popular culture, and the general public, expanding the vision of what an art museum could be.

He next led the curatorial team at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, at the time of its opening in 2011.

In 2013, he became Executive Director and Chief Curator of the Bo Bartlett Center at Columbus State University in Georgia, overseeing the transformation of a cotton warehouse into a contemporary art center. The flexible space hosts exhibitions, public programs and houses art, sketchbooks and the archives of contemporary realist painter Bo Bartlett.

Houston led the Bartlett Center until 2019. Since then, he has worked independently as an art historian and curator based in Brooklyn.

He has taught at The University of New Orleans and The Brandenburg Technical University, Germany, and has authored more than 40 books, exhibition catalogs and articles on architecture, art, and photography.

Bruno Milanese, board president, stated “We have a legendary artist showcased in a museum designed by a world-famous architect. David Houston is the ideal candidate to ensure George Ohr, the museum and Frank Gehry are deservedly honored and celebrated.”

The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art is a non-profit art museum located in Biloxi, MS. The Ohr O’Keefe Museum of Art’s mission is to promote and preserve the unique legacy of Biloxi potter George E. Ohr and the diverse cultural heritage of the Mississippi Gulf Coast; and to exhibit works which exemplify the independent, innovative, and creative spirit of George Ohr, emancipated craftsman Pleasant Reed, and Ohr O’Keefe Museum architect Frank Gehry.

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Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art COVID-19(Coronavirus) Updates

[UPDATE 07/01/2021]:

We are open regular hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10a.m – 5p.m. No advanced tickets necessary.


All of our galleries are open with exciting exhibitions

  • Reverence by Kathleen Varnell (Mississippi Sound Welcome Center)
  • Music as Image and Metaphor: The Kentler Flatfiles (IP Casino Resort Spa Exhibitions Gallery)
  • City within a City (Pleasant Reed Interpretative Center)
  • Enate by Luzene Hill (John S. and James L. Knight Pod Pavillion)
  • If I Knew Then by Erin Lee Antonak
  • Station Ohr/ O’Keefe – Weather Warlock by Quintron

The City of Biloxi’s safety guidelines will be in place including social distancing and hand sanitizing stations:

  • Please do not enter OOMA if you have been in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19, are experiencing a cough, shortness of breath, or sore throat right now, or have experienced symptoms like a fever, a new loss of taste or smell, vomiting or diarrhea or fever in the last 48 hours.
  • Please maintain a safe distance of at least six feet between your group, employees and other visitors while on campus.
  • You will see hand-sanitizing stations throughout the museum. Please use those frequently.
  • Restrooms and high touch areas are cleaned throughout the day.

 

Updates to our policy regarding COVID-19 will be posted to this page.

Sincerely,

All of us at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art

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Volunteer at the Ohr-O’Keefe!

Enthusiastic volunteers are needed!

Volunteers 18 years of age and up work with museum staff, art educators, and other individuals. Visitor Service Assistants gain customer service experience at the information desk during daily activities and during special events and programs. Children’s Class Assistants gain child-care and teaching experience as they learn hands-on about art museum education as a profession. Docent volunteers complete a comprehensive training program and lead interactive art appreciation tours for school groups and community groups.

Volunteering is a great way to become familiar with contemporary art and artists while working as part of a professional art museum team. Flexible schedules and exciting opportunities are available.

Contact Adriaan Simpson at visitorinfo@georgeohr.org

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Smoke Firing in a Barrel Kiln

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smoke fired pot
Paper Kiln
Barrel Firing
Paper Kiln

In February of this year Paulette Dove, a local painter and art educator, taught a workshop at the Ohr on how to make a paper kiln, a technique she learned at NCECA the last time it was in New Orleans. It’s similar to a pit firing, a low and slow method that creates marks from added materials and fuming. You cover the pots in all sorts of strange stuff like banana peels, rock salt, and seaweed then wrap them in aluminum foil before you build the temporary kiln around them and fire it up. The process for the Paper Kiln was really fun and everyone was feeding off the energy.

Ever since, I’ve been wanting to add a new alternative firing process at the studio besides the raku that we can do on a regular basis. That’s where Kathleen Varnell comes in. Along with being a ceramic artist for many years, Kathleen was also the Curator at the Mississippi Museum of Art. She does a Smoke Firing in a barrel, which is similar to the paper kiln, and she was kind enough to share her process with us in the Ohr studio. You can use the aluminum foil saggar for this kind of firing, too, if you’re looking for more color. But, these are some results without adding anything but the sawdust and paper.

Barrel firing is on the very low end of the temperature spectrum for ceramics (seldom going above 1500℉,) and work is usually fired to bisque beforehand. Although this way of firing isn’t good for any sort of surface you would want to eat off of, you get some beautiful results. There’s a lot of subtlety and drama available from firing this way, and the “set it and forget it” way of firing makes it a very appealing option for finishing a pot.

Some of the oldest pottery discovered was fired similarly, and the carbon coming from the combustible material used creates effects usually only seen in nature.

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Executive Architect

Eley Guild Hardy

In 2008, Guild Hardy Architects merged with Eley Associates of Jackson to create one of the largest architectural, engineering and interior design firms in the state. Now known as Eley Guild Hardy Architects, the firm was founded in 1953 on the principle of providing comprehensive professional services and excellent design. EGH continues this tradition today with a highly skilled and talented team of professionals including architects, interior designers and civil engineers that provides innovative design solutions to satisfy our clients’ needs.

Eley Guild Hardy’s design philosophy is that good design transcends style and substance is more important than trend. This is evident in the wide variety of projects which have been recognized for excellence by the American Institute of Architects, The American Society of Interior Designers, The Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) as well as many other construction industry organizations.

As a member of the United States Green Building Council, EGH realizes the importance of sustainable design. Our commitment is evident in the design of our own Biloxi office which received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification.

Over the last half-century, Eley Guild Hardy Architects has become one of the largest and most respected architecture firms in Mississippi. With offices in Biloxi and Jackson, EGH is committed to providing superior service to clients statewide and regionally.

eleyguildhardy.com

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