On October 20, the Center for Art and Public Exchange (CAPE) at the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) and the Pike School of Art celebrate Forward, the final project by CAPE’s 2020 In-State Artist in Residence Charles Edward Williams, with a Museum After Hours program from 5–10 pm at MMA. Attendees will enjoy a listening session of Forward followed by a panel discussion, in addition to music, artmaking, gallery tours, food trucks, outdoor games, and a film screening.

Williams’s residency is the fourth in CAPE’s series, which previously focused on Lafayette and Hancock counties. Williams conducted his project in McComb, Pike County, Mississippi. Forward (2020-21) is a seven-track audio album with interviews and original music, the result of an interactive community engagement project that considered race relations in the early 1900s. The artist donated the album to the Museum in July 2021. It is now available on the MMA’s website.

The project, presented in partnership with the Pike School of Art, focuses on McComb, a city eighty miles south of Jackson (population 13,000), and its people, history, and physical landscape. The artist researched the history of McComb as a railroad town and the scene of protest and violence leading up to and during the Civil Rights movement. Williams was inspired by the 1961 song We’ll Never Turn Back by Bertha Gober, an activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), that specifically relates to incidents in Pike and Liberty counties during the early 1960s and throughout the 20th century. SNCC considered the song its anthem, and in 1963 the organization developed a film of the same title to record the struggle for equality.

“The original plan was for me to spend as much time in McComb during 2020—interviewing residents and exploring the city and its history—with the final deliverables being a visual film and an audio album,” stated Williams. “But the detours of COVID-19 led to a new precise creative process for executing the project. Forward organically unfolded into a new direction to merge the visual film and audio album into a joint interactive experience. We’ll Never Turn Back begs the question: if you refuse to go back then where do you go? Forward became the answer.”

The artist asked a series of questions of the city’s community leaders, residents, and students, and recorded their experiences and aspirations. These recordings, led by Calvin Phelps, artist and Director for the Pike School of Art, are the foundation of Forward. Over numerous tele-sessions, Williams collaborated with musicians at Vigor Music, a recording studio in McComb, to layer the sounds and audio material to complete the tracks. This process allows listeners to imagine themselves in McComb in an immersive way.

“Through a tumultuous year, Charles was able to produce an original, organic, and one-of-a-kind album that is a composite of his process,” stated CAPE’s Director Monique Davis. “Forward is just the beginning for Charles with CAPE serving as his springboard to telling more stories of more people in more cities across Mississippi and the nation. Even from another state, we were able to engage the community in collaborative exploration about McComb and its past and present—producing art that builds deeper understanding and honors personal truths.”

The complete album is available on MMA’s website and through the Pike-Amite-Walthall Library System in McComb.

The CAPE artist in residency program is generously supported by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

About Charles Edward Williams

Charles Williams is a contemporary visual artist from Georgetown, S.C., and holds a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Ga., and an MFA from the University of North Carolina Greensboro). Creating compelling imagery in oils, video/film, and sound installations, Williams’s work investigates current and historic cultural events related to racism and suggestive stereotypes formed within individuals. His works define self–representation of human emotive responses that lie within cultural identity and reveal tension to expose the complexities within our sociopolitical environments. Through his visions, we are encouraged to engage in self-examination, question false boundaries that separate us, and view the inner connectedness of our common existence.

Williams has attended summer artist residencies at Otis College of Art and Design (Los Angeles); SOMA (Mexico City); the Gibbes Museum (Charleston, S.C.); and the McColl Center for Art + Innovation (Charlotte, N.C.). Solo exhibitions include Warm Water at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art (Grand Rapids, Mich.); Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston-Salem, N.C.); SUN + LIGHT at Residency Art Gallery (Inglewood, Calif.); Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, Fla.); and Susquehanna Art Museum (Harrisburg, Pa.). Other solo exhibitions include Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See at Winthrop University (Rock Hill, S.C.); Protect + Sun at Monica King Contemporary (New York); and Swim at Morton Fine Art (Washington). His work was also recently exhibited at Aqua and Scope Art Fair / Art Basel (Miami). Group exhibitions include the Weatherspoon Museum (Greensboro,N.C.); the Mint Museum (Charlotte, N.C.); East Tennessee State University (Johnson City,Tenn.); Tiger Strike Asteroid project space (Philadelphia); and other national institutions.

Representation in permanent collections includes the North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh, N.C.); Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, S.C.); Knoxville Museum of Art (Tenn.); Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, Fla.); and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art (Asbury, N.J). Williams also received the Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Award from the State of South Carolina to develop enriching art programs within local communities.

About The Center for Art & Public Exchange (CAPE)

CAPE is an initiative of the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and founding partners Luce Foundation, Southern Poverty Law Center, and Bradley. CAPE’s purpose is to use original artworks, exhibitions, programs, and engagements with artists to increase understanding and inspire new narratives around issues of race and equity in contemporary Mississippi. For more information, visit msmuseumart.org/cape/.

About CAPE’s In-State Artist in Residency Programs

CAPE and MMA offered a series of community-engaged art projects across the state from 2018 through 2020. In the form of artist residencies, CAPE funded the creation of artworks that build deeper understanding and honor personal truths about Mississippi’s people and places. These short-term residencies use art to engage communities in collaborative explorations of history. For more information, visit msmuseumart.org/artist-in-residence/.

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Artist’s headshot and tracks for press are at this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f2atyzcwg7pc9qo/AAAf-vNZtiGzFx87wFoqbpY7a?dl=0

About the Mississippi Museum of Art

Established in 1911, the Mississippi Museum of Art is dedicated to connecting Mississippi to the world and the power of art to the power of community. The Museum’s permanent collection includes paintings, photography, multimedia works, and sculpture by Mississippi, American, and international artists. The largest art museum in the state, the Mississippi Museum of Art offers a vibrant roster of exhibitions, public programs, artistic and community partnerships, educational initiatives, and opportunities for exchange year round. Programming is developed inclusively with community involvement to ensure that a diversity of voices and perspectives are represented. Located at 380 South Lamar Street in downtown Jackson, the Museum is committed to honesty, equity, and inclusion. The Mississippi Museum of Art and its programs are sponsored in part by the City of Jackson and Visit Jackson. Support is also provided in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. For more information, visit msmuseumart.org.