The Public Art Enterprise uses public art as a vehicle to deliver STEM education, applied skills, and creative placemaking in Southern communities.
In partnership with school districts, career-tech campuses, and municipalities, this program allows community members and students across fields of study to collaborate with artists and fabricators to create murals, sculptures, and other public artworks in their cities and towns. Through the process of site selection, community-engaged design, and problem solving with local stakeholders and officials, the program fosters collaboration across often-siloed sectors of education, arts and culture, industry, and government. These artworks are inspired by local history, culture, and landscape, and contribute to community pride,
economic development, and workforce training.
"
Designing the sculpture has helped me realize my interest more in the artistic side of designing and building, not only the engineering and construction and fabrication . . . . [it] definitely made my path for the future more clear.
—MATTHEW PAULS, Pascagoula High School
FEATURED PROJECT
Ocean Springs Gateway Sculpture Project
A PROJECT OF THE CITY OF OCEAN SPRINGS EXECUTED IN COLLABORATION WITH
THE WALTER ANDERSON MUSEUM OF ART AND COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS
Guided by community-engaged design with local stakeholders, the Ocean Springs Gateway Sculpture Project will create two large gateway sculptures marking the North and West entrances to downtown Ocean Springs. These sculptures—which will champion Ocean Springs history, culture, and landscape—are designed to support wayfinding and community pride, and to strengthen the City’s brand as a haven for arts, culture, environment, and dynamic quality of life.
Funds were made available for this project by the Mississippi Legislature.
PROJECT TIMELINE
Fall 2024: Community-engaged Design and Site Selection
Winter 2024: Conceptual and Schematic Design
Spring 2025: Fabrication and Site Prep
Summer 2025: Installation
PAST PROJECTS
ART IN THE OPEN, 2019
Multiple sites, MS Gulf Coast
BUILDING BLOCKS, 2022
Pascagoula, MS
HURRI-CRANE, 2022
Pascagoula, MS
BETWEEN TWO WATERS, 2023
Pascagoula, MS
RIVER CITY MURAL, 2023
Moss Point, MS
I LOVE OS, 2024
Ocean Springs, MS
MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH FUNDING FROM:
