“The Color of Blues” reception Friday will be held in the Museum’s upstairs gallery. The exhibit will remain on display through April 7. The Museum is located at 628 25th Ave., in downtown Meridian, and is open Tuesday-Sunday, from 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Admission to the Museum is free. For more information about the exhibit or other museum programs, call (601) 693-1501, e-mail MeridianMuseum@aol.com, or visit MeridianMuseum.org.



‘The Color of Blues’

exhibit opens Friday



The Meridian Museum of Art will host a reception on Friday from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. for “The Color of Blues,” a photography exhibit by Marianne Todd. The reception in the museum’s upstairs Weidmann Gallery, which will also include refreshments and live blues, is free and open to the public.

During the reception, artist Marianne Todd will give a gallery talk at 6:45 p.m. After the gallery talk, many of the musical artists featured in the photographs will perform, including powerhouse vocalist Patrice Moncell, drummer Dudley Tardo, guitarist Mark Whittington and the legendary bassist Chris Etheridge. In addition, many of the photographs in the show will be signed by the pictured musicians.

The “Color of Blues” is one of many programs being offered locally in connection with the presentation of the Smithsonian Institute’s new traveling exhibit on American Roots Music at the MSU Riley Performing Arts Center, which will begin on Saturday. The MSU Riley Center is one of the national kick-off locations for the interactive exhibit, which explores the ongoing cultural process that has made America the birthplace of more music than any place on earth.

Marianne Todd



A specialist in documentary photography, Marianne Todd got her start in photojournalism during her senior year at the University of Southern Mississippi. Upon earning a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism, she produced an intensive documentary of impoverished mountain life in the West Indies. While there, she accepted a photographer’s position at the Pensacola News Journal. Four years later, her demand from national publications became so numerous she decided to freelance for her living. Moving back to Mississippi, she freelanced for various newspapers and magazines and for a few years worked as a crime reporter and photographer for The Meridian Star.

Today her clients include Gov. and Mrs. Haley Barbour, Getty Images, Gannett News Service, Time Magazine, People Magazine and Mississippi Magazine. Her sensitive and intensive work during the internationally publicized Edgar Ray Killen trial and Hurricane Katrina took her work into a global spotlight, bringing her recognition on the international level. Her work has appeared also in Newsweek, US News and World Report, The New York Times, News Day, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, USA Today, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution and The Memphis Commercial Appeal among dozens of others. She continues to live and work in Meridian and Mississippi as a house photographer for The Riley Performing Arts Center in addition to her regular freelance work and travels for various publications throughout the region



“The Color of Blues”



The “Color of Blues” photography exhibit explores the state of the early 21st Century blues industry and brings to light both accomplishments and struggles of seasoned and budding artists. From a cultural standpoint, the exhibit distinguishes itself in that it reaches beyond the widespread notion that The Blues belongs only to the Mississippi Delta. From an artistic view, the exhibit distinguishes itself through the use of color. Where many photographers choose the use of black and white to showcase The Blues, perhaps for its antiquated tone, Marianne feels the vivid use of color more accurately portrays the lively and colorful backdrop of the blues culture, much of which is found in the dark but vibrant hues of juke joints. Its use, she said, also more accurately reflects the modern day industry.

Portraying performers and supporters, the exhibit reflects the paradox of Blues music, from widely acclaimed artists such as B.B. King to the Delta’s street musicians still living hand-to-mouth from the change they gather in tin cans. The exhibit is largely centered on Meridian blues artist Patrice Moncell, whose career climaxed and then fell before the age of 42. A classically trained artist, Moncell’s career culminated in performances at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Vatican. Now challenged by health issues, Moncell has returned to her home in Meridian where her capacity for obtaining work is greatly hindered. Still, the artist seeks to make her mark on the industry through training youth in the art of gospel music, a close relative of The Blues.

While highlighting the worldwide achievements of well-known artists, the exhibit also reveals a number of artists who struggle daily to create a means of livelihood from an art that pays little. Guitarist and vocalist Willie King, who started his career with a homemade guitar made with one strand of bailing wire, offered his contribution to the exhibit through his work at Freedom Creek. Housed in his backyard just across the Alabama state line, Freedom Creek is a rural site where The Blues as we know it is kept alive through lessons to children.

Marianne, who regularly photographs roots music performers, began her documentation of The Blues industry after meeting B.B. King. Her curiosity in the variances of artists turned her lens on The Blues in a regional aspect. From Willie King’s East Mississippi Blues, to that of Bo Diddley’s McComb, Bobby Rush’s Jackson and Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Delta, she continues to explore the substance of the Mississippi Blues industry and reason the state holds claim to the birth of the blues.