Art and Culture on the Mississippi Gulf Coast...
Click the website links below and on the following pages for up-to-date information.
Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention & Visitor's Bureau  http://www.gulfcoast.org
City of Biloxi  http://www.biloxi.ms.us


Mississippi Gulf Coast, once home to the Biloxi Indians, then d'Iberville's French, changed hands many times over the years. Each new flag brought the infusion of a new culture. In 1699, Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville, sent by the King of France to claim this important coastal region, sailed into Biloxi Bay and established Fort Maurepas and a small colony on the east shore that is now Ocean Springs. Southern planter society left graceful antebellum homes, and Jefferson Davis, the first and only President of the Confederacy, wrote his memoirs and spent his final years here. Built prior to the Civil War, but little used except as a Union prison, Fort Massachusetts stands guard off shore on West Ship Island, its cannons still ready to repel pirates or invaders.

Katrina Memorial
Highway 90 - Biloxi Town Green
Biloxi, MS 39530
The memorial is dedicated to the gulf coast victims who perished in Hurricane Katrina. It stands 12 feet tall, about the height of the water during Hurricane Katrina's storm surge. The Memorial contains a tile inlay of a wave and a glass case containing various items from destroyed buildings.

Tree Trunks Transformed Into Sculpted Works of Art
Scenic Highway 90 - MS Gulf Coast
Biloxi, MS 39530
Dozens of what were once beautiful live oaks have since died due to Hurricane Katrina. Begin a couple blocks east of the Biloxi Lighthouse and continue on down Highway 90 to see these tree trunks transformed into sculpted works of art by award-winning chainsaw artist Dayton Scoggins of Mississippi. Several other creations can be seen in the median further west.

Walter Anderson Museum of Art - 228-872-3164
510 Washington Avenue, Ocean Springs
The museum complex is comprised of the main facility and Art Education Cottage. Both facilities are fully restored and open to the public. The Walter Anderson Museum of Art celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2006 and this year marks the 100th anniversary of Mac Anderson's birth with a large retrospective exhibition and wonderful artwork from Walter, Peter, and Mac Anderson.

Come Catch the Mardi Gras Spirit! - 228-435-6245
119 Rue Magnolia in Biloxi, MS
Located in the historic Magnolia Hotel, Biloxi's Mardi Gras Museum traces the three hundred year history of the celebration of Mardi Gras on the Gulf Coast. On display are costumes, photographs, and memorabilia of carnival celebrations along the coast.

Glenn L. Swetman House
(New transitional home of the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art)
1596 Glenn Swetman Street, Biloxi, MS 39530
The Swetman House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was built circa 1927 by the renowned founder of Peoples Bank, the late Glenn L. Swetman, who also happened to have known and supported the work of the "Mad Potter of Biloxi", George E. Ohr (1857-1918). The House at 1596 Glenn Swetman Street in central Biloxi just off Highway 90 is a Colonial Revival-style HOme that sustained less than two feet of water damage in Katrina. Generations of the Swetman family and their friends grew up playing in the house and enjoying the antiques and items of local interest collected by the family.

Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art - 228-374-5547
Biloxi potter George Ohr, who performed his magic on the potter's wheel at the turn of the century, is now officially in Mississippi's Hall of Fame. Ohr, who pinched, folded, and twisted pots before his 1918 death, exhibited an unmatched technical ability and creativity. In 1884, he exhibited over 600 pieces in the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans. He used state fairs, international expositions, and trade fairs to exhibit and sell his work.

Mary C. O'Keefe Cultural Center - 228-818-2878
1600 Government Street, Ocean Springs
Located in the historic Ocean Springs Public School Building, the center provides a diverse set of programs and facilities for the arts. Mary C. O'Keefe, a progressive educator, was named the first woman public school superintendent in Mississippi. She instilled a spirit of learning and raised the level of education.

National Aeronautics & Space Administration - 800-237-1821
StenniSphere, the center's award winning visitors center, offers exciting new exhibits & stage shows. Test a space shuttle main engine! Land the space shuttle! Go aboard the International Space Station! From the Launch Pad board a shuttle for a 25 minute narrated tour through the 125,000 acre acoustical buffer zone to America's largest rocket test complex where space shuttle main engines are tested. Refuel in the Rocketeria (closed on Saturdays), a retro space-themed restaurant. Field trips and charter tours are welcome but visitors over 18 must provide valid photo ID and international visitors must provide a valid passport.