Mississippi Roads travels to downtown Jackson to browse the wonderful works of art on display at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

http://www.msmuseumart.org

As Mississippi 's largest art museum, the Mississippi Museum of Art is home to some very extraordinary works of art. And it's not simply the best in local and regional art that they have on display. Every year, some of the best exhibitions in the nation come here to Jackson for people to enjoy.

The organization's seed was planted in 1903 when Miss Bessy Cary Lemly, an artist and art professor at then all-female Belhaven College founded the Art Study Club. Miss Lemly would invite some town ladies twice a month to come have tea and discuss art with her and her students. In 1911 they were asked to put on a display of local art work at the Mississippi State Fair for public viewing. Thus the Mississippi Art Association was born at the State Fair and their first meeting was held inside a bug infested tent to avoid the noise and confusion of the rowdy Fair crowd. In 1978 the current facility opened it's doors here at 201East Pascagoula Street in downtown Jackson and officially became the Mississippi Museum of Art.

So over a span of one hundred years, the Mississippi Museum of Art has evolved from a parlor room tea party to an outstanding regional art institute.

And speaking of evolving, in our first story we go beneath the waters and explore the ever changing world of scuba diving.

Jacque Cousteau, the infamous underwater explorer, popularized the sport of Scuba worldwide with his unending quest to reveal the beautiful mysteries of the Ocean's depths. The exploration of the underwater world continues right here in Mississippi by many across the state in waters far off and even close to home. Deep South Scuba of Ridgeland, Mississippi , shows the ins and outs of getting started in the sport of SCUBA and what Mississippi 's offering are for the trained diver off our own coast.

http://www.deepsouthscuba.net/

The Mississippi Museum of Art offers educational programs and activities for both old and young, in a dynamic and energetic environment.

For adults, the museum offers a monthly Unburied Treasure Series, the Jazz, Art and Friend Series combines music and art for a perfect blend that you can enjoy after work or you can become a member or a volunteer at the museum to help support this great private, not for profit organization.

Children also have numerous options at the museum. Schools are encouraged to view the museum on guided tours and get hands-on learning in the Closer Look Gallery. After school programs and art camps are a great way for kids to tap into their creative potential and the Scholastic Art Awards provide young writers and artists with recognition and scholarships to help spark their interest in the arts.

In our next story, we meet two men who set out on a journey to discover their own brand of art; the true blues sound was their holy grail as they traveled along Highway 61.

“ Angels on the Backroads” was a very simple idea. Eddie and Frank Thomas, two musically gifted brothers from Iuka took a tape recorder, some musical instruments and a desire to rediscover the blues with them as they drove down Highway 61 from Memphis to New Orleans . Their goal was to play and record each song where it was originally performed. By doing so, they hoped to recapture that unique feeling with only nature's sounds around them as their accompaniment. By the time they finished, their trip had lasted eight years, covered countless miles, and produced a CD of 65 blues songs they hope will help us all rediscover the “Angels on the Backroads”.
http://www.angelsonthebackroads.com

From an initial collection of only several hundred works, the Museum's Permanent Collection has grown to over 4,000 pieces with an emphasis on mid-nineteenth and twentieth-century American art.

Its holdings of American art include paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, and photographs. This makes up about seventy-five percent of the permanent collection with twenty-five percent of that featuring Mississippi artists like:

Walter Anderson, Marie Hull, George Ohr, Edgar Parker and more than 280 works by William Hollingsworth.

The final twenty-five percent of the permanent collection is made up of European, Asian and Ethnographic Art. The museum has works representing important aspects of art history, including works on paper by Degas, Picasso and Renoir. Collections of Asian objects, pre-columbian ceramics, African artifacts, Japanese prints and Oceanic artifacts demonstrate the diversity of the collection.

Well you now know that you can find exquisite beauty and magnificent treasures here at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

In our next story we meet a group of people who enjoy a different kind of beauty. They prefer being outdoors and experiencing mother natures' beauty on two wheels.

A common misconception in Mississippi is since there are no mountains there must be no mountain biking.  Mississippi has plenty of opportunities for what is more appropriately called off-road cycling.  Riders say Mississippi has its advantages as a place to hit the trials over such hillier states as Georgia and Tennessee .  We take a look at the sport in Mississippi and highlight the thrills you can experience when you get out and go mountain biking, Mississippi style.

http://www.msmtb.org/

The Mississippi Museum of Art is moving. Although only a block away into the Arts Pavilion, culturally it will introduce a new world of art and community to both downtown Jackson and the State of Mississippi- not to mention serve as a model for the 21st-century museum. Along with the new digs comes a new exhibition. In June 2007, Between God and Man: Angels in Italian Art opens in the new building. The museum is working to secure works from some of the most prestigious collections in Italy . A lot of these works have never traveled to the United States and will return to Italy at the show's conclusion. So make sure you come down an experience this once in a lifetime event.