photo by Ben Hillyer

A photo titled “Natchez Ladies” sits waiting to be hung in the exhibit Tuesday. Natchezians Mary Lloyd and Gwinette Rush were photographed by Jane Rule Burdine in 1983. Burdine will speak during a program at the college on April 14.

Exhibit tells story of the South in photographs

By From staff reports | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Storytelling, especially in the South, is a tradition, a source of entertainment, and an art form. The photographs in the Mississippi Museum of Art’s exhibition, Tell Me a Story: Photographing the American South, also have stories to tell.

On display locally at Historic Jefferson College April 1-May 15, 2009, this exhibition features artworks from the Mississippi Museum of Art’s permanent collection. The American South is pictured in this exhibition through the eyes of photographers including William Christenberry, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Maggie Lee Sayre, Jane Rule Burdine, Maude Schuyler Clay, Birney Imes III, and Eudora Welty.

On Tuesday, April 14, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., a special program is scheduled in conjunction with the exhibition. Photographer Jane Rule Burdine, whose artwork appears in the exhibition, speaks about her photography. Burdine’s book of photographs, Delta Deep Down, was published in 2008.

Storyteller and humorist Annie B. McKee presents a dramatic reading from Eudora Welty’s writings, and Blues guitarist and vocalist Louis Arzo “Gearshifter” Youngblood performs. Youngblood has played the Blues since his childhood in Tylertown, Miss. Scott Barretta, host of Highway 61 Radio, writes that Youngblood has “[created] a distinctive mix by blending the country blues he learned as a youth with soul/blues classics and electric blues standards.”

Called “Unburied Treasures: On the Road,” the one-hour program is the sixth in a statewide arts series celebrating visual art, music and literature, as well as promoting participation in the arts. Organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art and staged in ten communities throughout Mississippi, each program features an artwork from the Museum’s permanent collection and includes guest artists, musicians, and readers. This program is funded by the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and The Wallace Foundation. Historic Jefferson College is located off Hwy. 61, in Washington, Miss., 4 miles northeast of Natchez. Admission for “Unburied Treasures” on April 14 is free.

This exhibition is supported with funds provided by the Mississippi Museum of Art's statewide Traveling Exhibition Endowment, a fund made possible through significant private contributions matched by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.