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David Wharton, director of documentary projects
and assistant professor of Southern Studies
at the Center, is creating a photography
exhibition portraying the citizens of Blue
Mountain, a small town in northeast Mississippi.
The exhibition is part of the community’s
effort to revitalize itself after decades
of economic decline. Home to Blue Mountain
College, a Christian women’s college founded
in 1873, the town has a rich history and
is now seeking to draw on its heritage to
facilitate economic growth and community
revitalization.
The unveiling of Wharton’s
photography exhibition will coincide with
a major community event September 23-24,
2004. Blue Mountain will host Your Town:
The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design,
a workshop funded through a $22,000 grant
sponsored by the National Trust for Historic
Preservation and the National Endowment
for the Arts. The project is administered
by the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance
and is one of four such workshops to be
conducted nationally in 2004. The Blue Mountain
workshop will focus on a range of rural
community design issues, using the town
as a case study; examine the surrounding
area, including Ripley and New Albany; and
explore how local and area heritage resources
can benefit by being part of regional heritage-conservation
and development initiatives.
The Center for the Study
of Southern Culture, a founding partner
of the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance,
is assisting with Wharton’s exhibition and
the Blue Mountain project.
KENT BAIN
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Tracy Hopkins
fishing at pond on campus of
Blue Mountain College
Krystal Mooney (left) and Jane
Sumrall singing, Lowrey Memorial
Baptist Church, Blue Mountain,
Mississippi.
Mae Belle Miller, age 94, on
the porch of her home in Blue
Mountain
Volleyball game
at July 4 picnic hosted by Blue
Mountain’s Good News Church
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