By: David Lewis

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2024 State Arts Conference Presented by the Westin Jackson! This year, we focused on some key topics that are a priority for any artist, arts organization, or art enthusiast. We also offered a few new experiences to add to our previous years through a free breakfast sponsored by the Community Foundation for Mississippi and screenings of two documentaries!

Our focus this year was highlighting the National Folk Festival, which is coming to Jackson, Mississippi, in November 2025, 2026, and 2027! We know how vital the role of the arts community is for this festival to be a success, so we brought in Blaine Waide with the National Folk Festival to talk about what to expect and how to get involved. If you want more information about the festival, be sure to contact us.

In the summer of 2025, MAC will introduce a new Public Art in Community grant alongside our granting partners: The Levitt Foundation, Community Foundation for Mississippi, Mississippi Main Street Association, Mississippi Humanities Council, and Visit Mississippi. We hope you attended the sessions focusing on public art and learned more about this wonderful new grant opportunity.

One of MAC’s strategic plan goals is to make our grants, programs, and resources more accessible. We realize how important it is to offer accessible resources to our community. We hope you received valuable information about this topic during the two sessions offered during the conference.

We could not produce this conference without the generous support of our partners!

Thank you again to everyone who helped make the conference successful this year. We hope you will join us again in 2025!