​After 25 years operating a successful gallery in New Orleans, Becky and Ed Edwards (B.E.E.) open a location in the Bay.
 
- story by Lisa Monti, photos by Ellis Anderson

The Budweiser Clydesdale horses parade through Old Town during the Second Saturday Artwalk - with a colorful contingent of locals lending a Bay St. Louis flair.  We've got the story, the NEW parade route and a nifty map. 
- story by Lisa Monti

​The parade route starts at the Depot and heads to Union Street, turns onto Second Street to deMontluzin where it turns west to Beach Boulevard and right on Court Street to return to the Depot.
 
The majestic Clydesdales are always the favorite stars of memorable Super Bowl commercials. The working team made the first Budweiser delivery by horse to President Franklin Roosevelt in the White House and they distributed beer in this fashion for decades. The route on Second Saturday will include deliveries to restaurants and bars in the "old-fashioned" way.
 
To keep Second Saturday accessible to all, the streets will not be barricaded for the parade. Instead, there will be officers posted on every corner as the parade passes.
 
Organizers say everyone is encouraged to welcome this tradition of Americana to the Bay to enjoy the monthly Second Saturday Artwalk and the amazing Clydesdales, in one unique and memorable combination.

Plastic trash barrels have been transformed by student and local artists, thanks to a new program that's being officially unveiled in Bay St. Louis, Wednesday, November 7th.  
- story by Lisa Monti

The litter containers - whose only adornment are the BSL initials - are being turned into showcases for art reflecting the Gulf Coast, according to Don Siebenkittel, the city’s code enforcement officer who is coordinating the mayor’s art project.

“All the barrels are being painted by local artists from youth organizations and local schools,” he said. “Most of the schools have art programs which are awesome, and these litter barrels are going to look fabulous.”
 ​

Some barrels will bear inspirational messages or school spirit shout-outs, but most will follow the Gulf Coast theme with original renditions of crabs, fish, boats or other coastal characteristics and inhabitants. None will be used to advertise businesses, though.

Adult artists in the community have also volunteered to take on the painting of a barrel. 

Siebenkittel said he’s enjoying getting out and working with the artists, along with his duties as the city’s code enforcement official, a job he's held less than a year.  But it's been an enormously busy one:  more than 800 properties have been cleaned up under Siebenkittel's watch.

So far about 30 litter barrels have been painted and will be placed along Beach Boulevard and Main Street. “Our goal is to have 100 of them by the end of the school year,” Siebenkittel said.
 
The public will get a look at the first collection of painted barrels when they are unveiled Nov. 7 at 11 a.m. at City Hall. They will be placed around town starting the following week.
 
Siebenkittel hinted that the project might be expanded to making rain drums or other environmentally friendly assets for the city.

​“There are so many different environmental and educational ways to use the barrels,” he said.

Update Nov. 20, 2017:  Bay St. Louis made the finals for the $25,000 Levitt grant that will help fund ten free concerts at the Alice Moseley Pavilion on the historic depot grounds.  Originally, 36 cities were in the running.  An online voting competition (see the story below) has thinned the ranks to 25 finalists.  Fifteen of those cities will be chosen by Levitt to receive the grant.  The winners will be announced on January 2, 2018.  Cross your fingers and stay tuned!  

- story and photos by Ellis Anderson 

​​The online voting began November 1st to select 25 finalists from a national pool of 36.  The voting closes on November 20th.  Each person must register online to vote and can only vote one time for a city (see easy directions below).   

After the voting closes, the Levitt Foundation will select 15 winners from the finalists. They'll announce the winners on January 3, 2018.

Directions to Register & Vote For Bay St. Louis
Estimated time to register & vote:  2.5 minutes

Click on this link and hit "Sign Up to Vote."  You'll be taken to a short form to fill in.  Afterward,  you'll have to log in with the info you registered with. 

That will take you to a page that shows all the contenders.  Scroll down until you see "Bay St. Louis."  Click on that.  You'll go to the BSL/Alice Moseley proposal page where you'll be able to hit the vote button!    

story continued

Each of the 15 winners will have to match the $25,000 grants from Levitt.  In the case of Bay St. Louis, the Alice and Tim Moseley Foundation has guaranteed the required $12,500 cash grant match, while the city and other partners have committed to matching the other $12,500 with in-kind services. 
 
Tim Moseley, founder of the Alice and Tim Moseley Foundation, applied for the annual Levitt Foundation’s AMP [Your City] Grant Awards (AMP stands for Amplify, Music and Place).
 
Moseley is the son of nationally recognized folk artist Alice Moseley, who lived in Bay St. Louis from 1989 until her death in 2004. The Alice Moseley Folk Art and Antique Museum is located on the second floor of the Bay’s historic depot, and is a popular local attraction. 

Last year, the Moseley Foundation spearheaded a drive to construct a performance pavilion on the depot’s oak-shaded grounds.  The Alice Moseley Pavilion has since hosted several free concerts, including two this fall. ​

​
 Tim Moseley says he was putting together a wish-list of performers for future shows when he noticed several of his favorite musicians often played at venues across the country in Levitt concerts.  After a bit of online investigation, he discovered the grant program. 
 
Although many mid-sized cities apply for the grants, the Levitt Foundation also encourages smaller cities – even those with only 10,000 people, like Bay St. Louis - to apply.  If the cities can get enough votes to make it into the finalist category, their grant applications are weighed equally along with the bigger cities. 

​“The key to becoming a finalist will be folks here using their networking skills,” said Moseley.  “For instance, if someone belongs to a statewide gardening club and asks members to vote, one resident can bring home 20 or 30 votes.  People sharing the link on their Facebook pages and urging their out-of-town friends to vote can give us a real chance.”
 
As of Saturday, November 4th, Moseley’s strategy seems to be working.  Diminutive Bay St. Louis was ranked 10th out of the 36 contenders (to see the most current ranking, click here for the Moseley Pavilion page and scroll down to the bottom).
 
While Moseley’s “not counting his chickens before they hatch,” he’s continued adding to his wish-list of musicians he’d like to see perform at the pavilion.
 
“I’m not naming any names,” Moseley said.  “But we have some fantastic performers in mind if we win.”

A new cutting-edge gallery featuring contemporary works by ten of the state's top artistic talents will be opening at the end of August, in the heart of Old Town Bay St. Louis.  
- story by Ellis Anderson 

An astonishing pop-up art show at the Bay St. Louis Shoofly features the works of 450 Waveland Elementary School students!  Details: Saturday, March 11th from 1 - 4pm, next to the historic Bay St. Louis City Hall, 300 S. Second Street. 

Internationally-acclaimed author Erik Larson will be speaking about his latest book, "Dead Wake," at the Randolph Center in Pass Christian on Wednesday, October 5th, starting at 7pm.  The event is free since it's a part of the "One Book/One Pass" reading program!

Who:  Erik Larson, best-selling author of "Dead Wake," "In the Garden of Beasts," "Thunderstruck," "The Devil in the White City," "Isaac's Storm," "Lethal Passage," and the "Naked Consumer." 

When:  Wednesday, October 5th at 7pm.  Admission is free. 

Where:  Randolph Center, 315 Clark Ave., Pass Christian, Mississippi.  

What brings a writer of Erik Larson's stature to the Mississippi Gulf Coast:  The author will be making a 50-minute presentation about his latest book, "Dead Wake," followed by a Q&A period.  

Larson is appearing as part of a five-month community reading program called "One Book/ One Pass," that began in April.  

The purpose of "One Book/One Pass" is to promote the value of reading by recommending a compelling book that links the community in a common conversation. The program hopes to encourage dialogue about a particular book and also foster lifelong learning and the development of a strong community identity.  Each year, a new book will be selected.

For 2016, the book selected was Larson's "Dead Wake," a spell-binding story about the luxury liner "Lusitania" which was torpedoed by a German sub in 1915.  Larson's talent of combining meticulous historical research with a compelling narrative has made him one of the country's most revered - and best-selling - authors. 

"One Book/One Pass" committee members include Scott Naugle, Margaret McMullan, Patrick O’Connor, Wendy Allard, Sally James, Mellissa Harris, Leslie Leyser, Merri Haines, and Carol Church.

For more information, contact Wendy Allard at the Pass Christian Public Library - 228-452-4596 or [email protected].

Twelve Bay St. Louis residents have been featured in video interviews by the Mississippi Museum of Art as part of a project called Modern Mississippi.  The Shoofly has embedded all the videos in this post, so have fun sharing!

Mapping a Modern Mississippi is a project of the Mississippi Museum of Art, presented in partnership with Visit Mississippi, the state's Tourism agency.  A team from the project visited Bay St. Louis in July and interviewed a dozen artistic movers and shakers who have created positive reverberations throughout the state.  Join the Shoofly Magazine in celebrating these champions of our community. 

Deadlines loom for two very cool creative competitions.  August 15th is the last day to submit artwork for the Shoofly Awareness Campaign art competition, while September 10th is the deadline for a one-act play competition sponsored by the Bay St. Louis Little Theatre. 

Here at the Shoofly Magazine, we're sponsoring a cool art contest to help publicize our name change from the Fourth Ward Cleaver (which started as a neighborhood online newsletter) to the Shoofly, after the Bay St. Louis landmark. ​

Bay St. Louis artist Kat Fitzpatrick was one of three spokespeople representing Mississippi in a new video just released by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  The video is part of a series, "The United States of Arts," created in celebration of the organization's 50th anniversary.