Exhibition on view at the Mississippi Museum of Art April 9 through September 11, 2022
Throughout the presentation of its landmark exhibition A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration, the Mississippi Museum of Art will present a free series of critical conversations, films, performances, activities, and celebrations focused on the exhibition themes of family, ancestry, land, and self-determination. Highlights of programming are described below. The Museum will follow all current CDC guidelines. All times listed are CST. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Events will all take place at the Mississippi Museum of Art, 380 South Lamar Street, Downtown Jackson, unless otherwise noted.
OPENING WEEKEND CONVENING
April 8–10, 2022
Admission to the exhibition and all programs opening weekend is free but registration is required. Please register here. Many programs will be live-streamed on the Museum’s YouTube channel.
Friday, April 8, 2022
Registration is open to Mississippi Museum of Art Members only. Become a Museum Member here.
5 PM: Reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres
6 PM: Storytelling and the Making of an Exhibition
There is no single story of the Great Migration, as is evident in the unique work produced by the artists for the exhibition. The very starting point for A Movement in Every Direction is one that is deeply personal and requires a different approach, kind of collaboration, and level of care in bringing it to fruition. Join us for a conversation with Dr. Ebony Lumumba, first lady of Jackson, chair and associate professor of English at Jackson State University, and artists Robert Pruitt and Zoë Charlton on materiality, storytelling, and the making of an exhibition. Introductory remarks will be made by exhibition co-curators Ryan N. Dennis, Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Center for Art and Public Exchange at the Mississippi Museum of Art (she/her), and Jessica Bell Brown, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
7:30 PM: Performance by artist Theaster Gates Jr and The Black Monks
The Black Monks, formerly The Black Monks of Mississippi, has been a through line in Theaster Gates Jr’s artistic practice. Their music is rooted in the Black music of the South, including the blues, gospel, and wailings, but also linked to ascetic practices, related most closely to Eastern monastic traditions. It is an experiment around the specificity of Black sound and a way to give life to the everyday objects that Theaster Gates Jr collects.
Saturday, April 9, 2022
11 AM: Memory and Ancestry within and without the Archive
The archive is often a starting point for research, whether it be to piece together a memory, an ancestral tie, or a history. Historical archives, however, are often deeply flawed, shaped by those who possess the power to build collections and to determine what is worthy of collecting. As Saidiya Hartman remarks in her groundbreaking book, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, “Every historian of the multitude, the dispossessed, the subaltern, and the enslaved is forced to grapple with the power and authority of the archive and the limits it sets on what can be known, whose perspective matters, and who is endowed with the gravity and authority of historical actor.” Join Mississippi Department of Archives and History director Katie Blount, along with author Saidiya Hartman, Afro Charities executive director and artist Savannah Wood, and artists Akea Brionne and Carrie Mae Weems to discuss formal and informal archival presences and absences in their work and how they incorporate the archive into their creative process.
12:15 PM: Close Looking in the Galleries
This is an opportunity to gather and to spend dedicated time in front of a single work of art on display in A Movement in Every Direction. Led by the Mississippi Museum of Art’s Teaching Fellows.
3 PM: An Unfinished Movement: A Look at the Contemporary Legacies of the Great Migration
The Great Migration as a movement was not catalyzed by a single event, nor should it be marked by a singular understanding as an exodus out of one place to another. The decisions to stay or to go or to return were prompted by a host of reasons and acts of resilience, big and small, the reverberations of which continue to be felt in the very fabric of contemporary American life. Join us for a conversation with Ford Foundation president and author Darren Walker and artist Mark Bradford about the lasting economic, social, and cultural legacies of the Great Migration, a movement that is unfinished.
EVENING CELEBRATION
Mississippi’s own ABC Broadcaster Robin Roberts, First Lady of Mississippi Elee Reeves, and First Lady of Jackson Dr. Ebony Lumumba (Honorary Chairs) invite you to a soiree celebrating A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration followed by a concert of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.
5 – 7 PM: Reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres
Registration is required. Please register here.
7:30 PM: Bravo V – Distinctively All-American: A Symphonic Performance to Celebrate the Opening of A Movement in Every Direction
Thalia Mara Hall, 255 East Pascagoula Street, Downtown Jackson
Purchase tickets here.
African American composer Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement is brought to life by young guest pianist Zhu Wang. Leonard Bernstein’s dance episodes from On the Town, George Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm Variations, and Aaron Copland’s marvelous and beloved Appalachian Spring complete this singular all-American evening.
FAMILY DAY | A Movement in Every Direction
Saturday, April 23, 2022
9:30 AM – 12:30 PM
Registration is encouraged, but not required. Register here.
Celebrate the opening of A Movement in Every Direction in this fun-for-the-whole-family morning of moving, music, artmaking, and storytelling. Attendees will have a chance to view the exhibition, better understand the artists’ processes, and reflect on their own personal histories and connections to home and place.
TEEN TAKEOVER | Night at the Museum
Friday, May 6, 2022
6 – 8 PM
Registration is encouraged, but not required. Register here.
Come celebrate the end of the school year with an evening of music, artmaking, free food, games, and so much more! This free event for high school students only will explore The Art Garden, galleries, and classrooms. This event is created for teens by the Museum’s Teen Council.
ART ON FILM | Panel and Film Premiere with Jamea Richmond-Edwards
Friday, May 13, 2022
7 PM
Registration and an exhibition ticket are required. Register here.
Join us for the premiere of Jamea Richmond-Edwards’ film, Leviathan, commissioned for A Movement in Every Direction. This roughly 20-minute film is a three-part suite that utilizes music and dance to unravel the migration story of Richmond-Edwards’ family. Participants will hear from Richmond-Edwards, have a first viewing of Leviathan, and listen to a panel conversation with the artist and other special guests.
CURATOR TALK | A Movement in Every Direction
Thursday, May 26, 2022
6 PM
This event will take place over Zoom and registration is required. Register here.
A Movement in Every Direction exhibition co-curators Ryan N. Dennis, Chief Curator and Artistic Director of the Center for Art and Public Exchange at the Mississippi Museum of Art (she/her), and Jessica Bell Brown, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art, discuss the exhibition and share insights and reflections.
ART ON FILM | Conversation and Film Premiere with Akea Brionne
Thursday, June 23, 2022
7 PM
Registration and an exhibition ticket are required. Register here.
Join us for the premiere of Akea Brionne’s film, Mississippi Goddamn, commissioned for A Movement in Every Direction. In this 45-minute film, shot in Columbus, Mississippi, Brionne engages with her family’s history in the South through revisiting spaces with her grandfather, William T. Brown.
CURATOR TOURS
Saturdays: June 25; August 27, 2022
11 AM
Chief Curator and Artistic Director of MMA’s Center for Art Public Exchange, Ryan N. Dennis, leads a guided tour of A Movement in Every Direction.
GALLERY TALKS
Fridays: May 6; June 3; July 8; August 5, 2022
11:30 AM
Scholars and artists share thoughts, reflections, and perspectives on the work in A Movement in Every Direction and the impact the Great Migration had on women, literature, music, and oral histories. Featured speakers include Dr. Tiffany Caesar, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Visiting Scholar at Jackson State University’s Margaret Walker Center; Donald “Field” Brown, PhD candidate in English literature at Harvard University; Dr. Phyllis Hale, Assistant Professor and Director of Opera/Musical Theatre at Jackson State University; and Alissa Rae Funderburk, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation oral historian for the Margaret Walker Center.
LOOK AND LEARN
Saturdays: June 18; July 16; August 20, 2022
10:30 AM
Registration is required. Visit msmusemart.org for registration details.
Gather round for Look and Learn – our literacy and art-making program for children ages 5 and under. This monthly story time adventure connects families to art at the Museum and plants seeds of creativity in growing minds. In this summer series, we focus on books based on movement, family, and the power of storytelling to celebrate A Movement in Every Direction. After each reading, families will view artwork in the exhibition and join Museum educators in the classroom for an art project.
PUBLIC TOURS
Every Sunday at 2 PM starting April 24 through the run of the exhibition
Join our trained gallery educators for a free tour of A Movement in Every Direction. Each tour is discussion-based and will provide participants the opportunity to learn about select works of art, and engage with exhibition themes of storytelling, family, land, and self-determination.
CLOSING WEEKEND
September 9 – 11, 2022
Registration is required for all closing events and will be available soon on msmuseumart.org.
Friday, September 9, 2022
6:30 PM: Medgar Wiley Evers Lecture | Isabel Wilkerson
Galloway United Methodist Church, 305 North Congress Street, Downtown Jackson
The Mississippi Museum of Art and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History present the 2022 Medgar Wiley Evers Lecture featuring Pulitzer Prize and National Humanities Medalist Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson, who authored the New York Times bestseller The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, will reflect on how the Great Migration, with its connection to Mississippi, continues to shape the American narrative. After the lecture, attendees will have the opportunity to join the author in a book signing.
Saturday, September 10, 2022
7 PM: Two Wings: The Music of Black America in Migration
Jazz pianist, composer, and artist Jason Moran and Mezzo-soprano and composer Alicia Hall Moran draw on their own family lore and stories—both harrowing and inspired—of the Great Migration with music from rhythm and blues to gospel, classical to Broadway, work songs to rock, and more.
Program and Event Sponsors
The Mississippi Museum of Art is grateful to our community partners and sponsors for their contributions to our programs and events including The Selby and Richard McRae Foundation, Butler Snow, Trustmark National Bank, Mississippi Arts Commission, Brian Fenelon, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, National Endowment for the Arts, Downtown Jackson Partners, Ross & Yerger, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Ergon Foundation, Crossroads Film Society, and the Henry and Martha Hederman Charitable Foundation.
Exhibition Sponsors
A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration is co-organized by Mississippi Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art with support provided by the Ford Foundation, Teiger Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Its presentation in Jackson, Mississippi, is sponsored by the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Lucy and John Shackelford Fund of the Community Foundation for Mississippi, The Selby and Richard McRae Foundation, Trustmark National Bank, Mississippi Arts Commission, Mississippi Humanities Council, Visit Mississippi, Visit Jackson, Butler Snow, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, The Westin Jackson, the Ramey Agency, Downtown Jackson Partners, Ross & Yerger, Hope Credit Union, Baker Donelson, H. F. McCarty, Jr. Family Foundation, Claudia and Robert Hauberg, Brian T. Fenelon, Christina and Brian Johnson, Mary and Sam Miller, and Kathryn L. Wiener.
About the Mississippi Museum of Art
Established in 1911, the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) is dedicated to connecting Mississippi to the world and the power of art to the power of community. The Museum’s permanent collection includes paintings, photography, multimedia works, and sculpture by Mississippi, American, and international artists. The largest art museum in the state, the Mississippi Museum of Art offers a vibrant roster of exhibitions, public programs, artistic and community partnerships, educational initiatives, and opportunities for exchange year-round. Programming is developed inclusively with community involvement to ensure that a diversity of voices and perspectives are represented. Located at 380 South Lamar Street in downtown Jackson, the Museum is committed to honesty, equity, and inclusion. The Mississippi Museum of Art and its programs are sponsored in part by the City of Jackson and Visit Jackson. Support is also provided in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. For more information, visit msmuseumart.org.
# # #
Media contacts:
Jana Brady, Mississippi Museum of Art, jbrady@msmuseumart.org, 601-651-3822
Libby Mark or Heather Meltzer, Bow Bridge Communications, info@bow-bridge.com, 917-968-5567
