By Jeff Roberson
Oxford Citizen
MERIDIAN – Mississippi has produced an abundance of talented artists, musicians and writers through the years.
To those who call the state home, that’s a source of pride.
And soon, Mississippians and people from across the world will have one place to go to find out about the state’s homegrown talent.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Center, which will be located in downtown Meridian, will take place this fall.
The center will showcase all aspects of Mississippi culture, as its name implies, in the areas of arts and entertainment.
Whether it’s B.B. King or Faith Hill, Elvis Presley or William Faulkner, George Ohr or Wyatt Waters, Tennessee Williams or Willie Morris, the list of those who will be recognized is seemingly endless.
Those planning and supporting the center, which is scheduled to open in 2017 for Mississippi’s Bicentennial, want to make sure the public knows this is much more than a museum.
“As much as we’re paying tribute, it’s more than that,” said Marty Gamblin of Philadelphia, Mississippi who is serving as the MAEC’s executive director. “It’s letting people who visit know that these were just everyday people. They had talent and they worked on that talent. So they had a work discipline, and they became very successful. And they did encounter obstacles along the way. We’re trying to use arts as a way to inspire and educate people about trying to better themselves.”
MAEC’s hands-on exhibits will highlight Mississippi’s artists in every art category, as well as arts and entertainment entrepreneurs and their contributions in their respective fields to the world, according to MAEC’s website.
The two level structure will encompass nearly 58,000 square feet, including 22,000 square feet for the Hall of Fame and exhibit space organized around five themes – the land, the home, the community, the church and the people.
Nikki DeJesus Sertsu, a senior consultant with Arts Consulting Group in Washington, D.C., is working on the Mississippi project.
“It is one of the biggest projects I’ve worked on. And it is one of the most unique,” she said. “I do a lot of history museums. A lot of art museums. This is not a museum really. It’s an experience. Their educational mission is very important, not just to the state but to the country. I don’t think there is anything that exists in the country that will be like it.”
The project has been a long time in coming. The MAEC actually dates back to 1998. After that, there was movement in the Mississippi Legislature in 2001 to get funding. But as the project slowly moved along, Hurricane Katrina became a major setback, and the project slowed again.
In 2010, the Legislature declared Meridian as the first designated entertainment district in Mississippi, including the MSU Riley Center, the historic Temple Theater, Soule Steam Works and Union Station. An MAEC board member donated to MAEC the old Meridian Hotel building on the corner of Front Street and 22nd Avenue. The Board then purchased the old Montana’s building next door to the hotel.
More than half of the money has been raised to support the establishment of the $45 million MAEC project.
“I think there’s a double payoff,” Gamblin said. “We’re hopefully going to be telling the stories a little bit different than what you would go to the other existing facilities to learn about the arts. I think we’re going to be covering some arts that probably aren’t covered. We’re going to have a way of integrating that into some interactive things that help younger people grow up to appreciate all of Mississippi has to offer. As we grew up, maybe a lot of us didn’t see the depth of it and lean to it like we should. So it’s going to involve new ways to learn about all of this.”
Oxford resident and Meridian native Marian Barksdale is a board member for MAEC and is pleased the project is coming to fruition.
“It’s a gateway experience for people to learn about the broadness of Mississippi arts and culture,” she said. “It will help people understand and spark curiosity about other venues around the state that might speak to their particular interests. People might go here and then want to go to the B.B. King Museum, the Mississippi Museum of Art, or go see the George Ohr Museum on the Coast. I think it’s going to be a great experience.”
Robert Saarnio, director of the University Museum and Historic Houses at the University of Mississippi, was at both sessions this year and last year in Oxford as MAEC brought its ideas to north Mississippi to consult with people and inform them of the project.
“Including Oxford in the Listening Sessions, and they’ve been here twice, makes it evident they mean to represent the whole state,” Saarnio said. “By coming to Oxford and going to other parts of the state mean they are intent on a true Mississippi-wide undertaking.”
Saarnio said he believes that is important, and there is a rich heritage throughout the state, including this area.
“Oxford and Lafayette County and north Mississippi have so much culture legacy and heritage, so many writers and musicians and artists of renown that we are certain that this area will be well represented,” he said.
Sertsu said she hopes people in Oxford and throughout the state will visit and enjoy the facility.
“That sense of pride for someone who lives in Oxford is to visit the center and experience it. But also to use the information they learn there to go out across the state and get more in depth knowledge about whatever genre or artist or artistic expression they learned there,” she said. “Hopefully this place will give people a snapshot and push people out into the state to experience even more.”
jeff.roberson@journalinc.com
Twitter: @Citizen_Jeff