The Museum of the Mississippi Delta has received official approval to show the Lalla Walker Lewis murals from the old Greenwood-Leflore Public Library.
Mills
At Monday night’s Leflore County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board voted unanimously to lend the murals for the museum’s show highlighting the artist’s work, which is set to start before the Thanksgiving holiday and run until mid-January.
Katie Mills, executive director of the museum, told the board she hopes to take the two murals — which are separated into about eight pieces — and properly display them for the show.
After the board approved the request, Mills said she was excited to help highlight the art for the community.
“It’s wonderful,” she said. “So many people are so excited about seeing them. It will be the first time people will be seeing them for years and years.”
The murals, which are being held in storage by the county and depict cotton plows, riverboats and other aspects of early Mississippi life, were a part of the old library’s participation in the Depression-era Works Progress Administration program. This 1935 program, established during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, added art to the library that was built in 1914 through the philanthropy of industrialist Andrew Carnegie.
The murals were removed from the building about 20 years ago to be restored.
Lewis, who was born and raised in Greenwood, was famous for depicting life in the Mississippi Delta in her art and worked in a variety of mediums from paints to woodcuts. She died at the age of 93 in 2006, but many of her works can still be found in Greenwood homes and businesses.
• Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. Twitter: @AdamBakst_GWCW
