Matriarch and creative beacon of the Anderson family, Annette “Mère” McConnell Anderson wrote these words upon her graduation in 1900 from Newcomb College.  Taking to heart the teachings of her professor, Ellsworth Woodward that “women must instill in their children ideality - the foundation stone of taste” and to “give your children a love of beauty,” “Mère” began the legacy that would define the Anderson family and Shearwater Pottery.  The story of the Anderson family illustrates all aspects of the American Arts & Crafts movement, extending knowledge of the arts and principles of design through nurture and support from within the family and community.  Most notably, her three sons, Walter, Peter and “Mac” have each made important contributions to American art history and the artistic contributions of the Anderson women enhance our appreciation of the far-reaching teachings in the “dignity of art.”

This exhibition is an overview of this unique pottery found in the American South in the mid-1800’s and the origins of which are attributed to enslaved African Americans such as “Dave the Slave”. Face jugs are still a widely collected form of pottery and are growing in popularity due to influential works by the legendary Lanier Meaders and other contemporary potters such as Steve Abee and Bill Flowers. Many artists still work in traditional methods with traditional materials, digging their own clay, firing in groundhog kilns and once-glazing their wares with alkaline, or “tobacco spit” glazes made from the ash of their woodstoves.

In the Jo Love Little Gallery.

In these two bodies of work, Gretchen Haien invites us to try a new way of seeing and seeking answers to larger life questions.  “Interior Frontiers" uses the frame or photographic edge to abstract a would-be interior or street scene, reordering shapes from reality into a new perception for the viewer.  These studies earned her the "Emerging Artist to Watch in Photography" by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

“Sea Zen” takes us on a stroll along the water’s edge, noting a solitary rock or a beached one-person dinghy.  Framed to be viewed as if through a ship’s porthole, the lone observer wonders whether this is a view of serenity and solitude or loneliness and isolation.

Gretchen Haien was recently awarded the Mississippi Arts and Letters Award in Photography, and has been teaching photography at Millsaps College and Belhaven College in Jackson, MS before joining Belhaven fulltime in 2007.

In the Jo Love Little Gallery.

This exhibition celebrates eighty years of creativity and production of an historic American crafts site and facility. In 1918 Annette McConnell Anderson bought 24 acres at the mouth of the Biloxi Bay in Ocean Springs and named it Fairhaven. She planned for the location to become a studio and art colony for her family and the community, and in 1923 the family moved there from New Orleans. Around 1926 -1928 son, Peter Anderson became interested in pottery, built a brick wood-burning kiln and Annette bought the late George Ohr’s kickwheel at an auction. Together with his father, Peter started up Shearwater Pottery in 1928. After learning from his father beginning in 1966, Peter’s son Jim took over the position of master potter and was joined by his own son Peter Wade in 1999. Mac’s daughter Adele and Peter’s children Patricia Anderson Findeisen and Michael followed their fathers as decorators at Shearwater. Peter’s daughter Marjorie Anderson Ashley has long been the business manager for Shearwater Pottery, overseeing the showroom and authenticating old pieces.

An exhibition of new paintings by internationally known artist and Biloxi native, Frank Janca will open. These works were created especially for this exhibition and feature Southern France where Janca lives and teaches part of the year. This exhibition will complement Prospect.1 New Orleans, the largest biennial of international contemporary art in the tradition of the great international biennials, ever organized in the United States, opening November 1, 2008 to the public in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans.