A SERIES OF SITE-SPECIFIC SCULPTURES UNITED THE VISION AND DESIGNS OF WALTER ANDERSON WITH THE NATURAL WORLD THAT INSPIRED HIM.
The Museum and sculptor Zachary Harris have reinterpreted Anderson’s beloved block print designs to evocatively exist within area environments. These sculptures bridge the space between the Museum and landscapes beyond its walls, connecting the region’s art history to conversations about science, conservation, and historic preservation.
They encourage visitors to venture off the beaten path and to cultivate new perspectives about living, studying, and interacting with the land and sea.
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Additional support provided by partnering sites. Special thanks to The Shed BBQ & Blues Joint and The Focus Group.
CHARNLEY NORWOOD HOUSE | OCEAN SPRINGS, MS
“Beautiful today. Goldenrod, blue shadows and Monarch butterflies… Butterflies everywhere.
– WALTER INGLIS ANDERSON (1903-1965)
This historic beachfront summer home in Ocean Springs, Mississippi was designed in 1890 by Chicago architect Louis Sullivan – the father of the skyscraper – with assistance from his young draftsman, the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright.
The home, evidence of this architectural collaboration, helped usher in new ideas in residential design. The home is “distinctly American,” says Robert Ivy, CEO of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), pioneering in the way that it “reaches out into the landscape and positions people in a more symbiotic relationship with their surroundings...”
Louis Sullivan, who built the home for Chicago lumber-baron James Charnley, was so taken with the seaside atmosphere that he built his own summer cottage next door to The Charnley-Norwood House. Here, Sullivan found renewal and connection to nature, describing the surroundings as “a stately forest of amazing beauty, arranged as though by the hand of an unseen poet.”
The Charnley-Norwood House has endured devastation and rebirth, rebuilt in 1897 after it caught fire, and restored with immense effort and coordination after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Its latest renaissance was completed in 2013, and the home is now managed by the Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area.
Known as “Bon Silene,” referencing the rose garden in front of the home, The Charnley-Norwood House is a testament to the resilience and historic preservation. Past the manicured rose garden and toward the Mississippi Sound, visitors look over a wild meadow of flowers and natural growth. This ecosystem supports life of all kinds, most notably the monarch butterflies, who descend upon the meadow during their spring and fall migrations.
Archival photos by Winnefred Norwood Shapker, from the Sutter Photograph Collection, MS Dept. of Archives and History. Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
PASCAGOULA RIVER AUDUBON CENTER | MOSS POINT, MS
PRAC is located on Rhodes Bayou, which drains into the Escatawpa and Pascagoula Rivers, with grounds and exhibits focusing on the unique ecosystem that is the Pascagoula River watershed.
GRAND BAY NATIONAL ESTUARINE RESEARCH RESERVE
MOSS POINT, MS
The Grand Bay NERR is comprised of approximately 18,000 acres containing pine savannas, salt marshes, salt pannes, bays and bayous as well as terrestrial habitats unique to the coastal zone. Restoration Science projects include prescribed fires to return to its original state a landscape that was once native longleaf pine savanna, changed dramatically due to human development and interference that has altered the natural ecology.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
ZACHARY HARRIS, a native of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Mississippi State University in 2011 and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Georgia in 2018. Harris invites participants and viewers to experience a familiar space in a new way and believes his objects impact the viewer by enhancing their surrounding environment.
PHOTO BY FRED SALINAS