{"id":2107,"date":"2013-05-20T22:13:33","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T03:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/?p=2107"},"modified":"2013-05-20T22:13:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T03:13:33","slug":"mississippi-discoveries-2-the-ohr-okeefe-museum-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/05\/mississippi-discoveries-2-the-ohr-okeefe-museum-of-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Discoveries 2: The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"These<\/a>
These buildings looked like bongo drums to me. This particular part of the museum wasn’t quite open yet.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During our week in Biloxi this past March, Dave and I took a drive to Ocean Springs, which has done a fantastic job of rebuilding after Katrina’s\u00a0devastation.<\/p>\n

On the drive, we passed the most unusual-looking buildings near the Isle and Palace Casinos. There were three buildings in a row up against U.S. 90, each of which had very distinctive architecture.<\/p>\n

The sign along the highway read “Ohr-O’Keefe Museum<\/a>“…about which I immediately assumed was a museum featuring America’s most famous O’Keeffe<\/a>. \u00a0But I was wrong.<\/p>\n

While Dave was recovering from his eye surgery, I took a couple hours and paid a visit to the museum. Despite its unusual appearance, inside those buildings was some beautiful art!<\/p>\n

The artist featured here is George E. Ohr<\/a>, a Biloxi native who operated a very eccentric pottery shop. His standard pottery pieces began to take on some very wild appearances over the years. A large Ohr pottery collection is a\u00a0permanent\u00a0exhibit at the museum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
George Ohr was known for his wild mustache, and the sticker you receive with paid admission (to show that you’re a paid visitor) is of a giant mustache.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The “campus” to the Ohr-O’Keefe actually consists of five buildings total. You can read more about the architecture here, but I was intrigued by the modernist version of an antebellum “Shoo-Fly”<\/a> to which one of the buildings was supposed to pay homage.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The roof of this building was supposed to be a “shoo fly” porch. If you read about the history of a shoo fly<\/a>, you’ll shake your head too.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The five buildings provide numerous gallery spaces of assorted sizes. I had the\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to see four different artists’ exhibits. All of the exhibits had local connections<\/a>, whether it was the artists’ hailing from Biloxi, or in one case, the medium was wood scavenged from Hurricane Katrina debris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to the exhibits, one of the buildings is the City of Biloxi Center for Ceramics<\/a>. A fully operational ceramics workshop was in use when I was there, with artists actively throwing on the pottery wheels.<\/p>\n

A very non-moderist building stands on the campus. It’s the Pleasant Reed Interpretive Center<\/a>, which features local African-American historical artifacts. The original building was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but has been rebuilt completely, thanks to numerous archives and photographs.<\/p>\n

The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art is about a 60-90 minute visit, admission is $8-10 per person and is on U.S. 90 just west of the bridge between Biloxi and Ocean Springs.<\/p>\n

Enjoy more pictures from my visit to the museum here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During our week in Biloxi this past March, Dave and I took a drive to Ocean Springs, which has done a fantastic job of rebuilding after Katrina’s\u00a0devastation. On the drive, we passed the most unusual-looking buildings near the Isle and Palace Casinos. There were three buildings in a row up against U.S. 90, each of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[197,373,378,369,368,624,377],"class_list":["post-2107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-biloxi","tag-george-ohr","tag-mississippi","tag-mississippi-discoveries","tag-museum","tag-ohr-okeefe-museum"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t