MAEEX to announce inaugural hall of fame class

Published 4:46 pm Thursday, March 16, 2017

The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience will announce its inaugural class for the hall of fame at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the State Capitol building in Jackson.

“It’s a state project,” Mark Tullos, the president and CEO of the new center, said on why the announcement would take place in Jackson. “It’s not just a museum for Meridian.”

Tullos added that a repeat announcement, featuring the same photos used for the capital presentation, would be made at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at Glass Inc., 210 Grand Ave., in Meridian. Glass Inc. is hosting an East Mississippi Business Development Corporation Business After Hours event at that hour.

The first class for the center’s hall of fame was chosen in two voting rounds: one open to the public and one for a select panel. 

“We anticipated 15 (inductees),” Tullos said. “But we had a tie on two and so 17 will be inducted. We were quite surprised.”

Tullos said he hoped they would be able to announce a more precise date for the center’s opening at the news conference since they had nearly finished pouring the foundation. 

“Right now, we’re hoping for late March or early April (of next year),” Tullos said.