MERIDIAN — Saturday, Nov. 1, artists and community leaders from around the state are invited to the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX) for a day all about public art, where Charleston native Sandra Bloodworth will be the headliner.
The event will kick off with the announcement of a new opportunity for site-specific work at The MAX. Then, Mississippi Arts Commission Executive Director David Lewis will share information about MAC’s Mississippi Public Art in Community Grant to provide multi-year support for community engagement, design, installation and activation of public art.
Bloodworth, 2024 recipient of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal, had a 36-year career at the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Arts & Design program — 28 of them as director — and commissioned hundreds of artists to build one of the largest and most diverse public art collections in the world.
She began her career as community arts coordinator at the Mississippi Arts Commission, earning degrees from Mississippi College, the University of Mississippi, and Florida State University. Bloodworth is co-author of three books on art in the transit system (“Along the Way,” “New York’s Underground Art Museum,” and “Contemporary Art Underground”). She lectures on public art, advises institutions and communities, and leads a full studio practice as a painter.
In her keynote at 10:30 a.m., she will share insights from a lifetime of work in public art and its enduring connection to place.
