Learning more about the Anderson Brothers

November 2, 2021

WXXV Staff,

The 43^rd annual Peter Anderson Festival is happening this weekend in Ocean Springs.

In honor of the event, News 25’s Lorraine Weiskopf takes us to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, a museum dedicated to the work of Peter’s brother.

The Walter Anderson Museum of Art, WAMA for short, displays work from Walter Anderson and his two brothers, Peter Anderson, master potter and founder of Shearwater Pottery, and Mac James McConnell Anderson, a noted painter and ceramist. “Walter Anderson, Peter Anderson, and their younger brother, Mac, were really the engines of creativity and creative economy in the 20s, 30s, on through the 20^th century and made Ocean Springs as it today.”

Throughout the museum, you can view the work of the three brothers and better understand the family’s working relationship. WAMA Executive Director Julian Rankin said, “Peter would make these wonderful plate pots and all types of ceramics that were meant to be used in everyday life. Walter would come in and decorate these with hand drawn designs and create molds of animals and different shapes that Peter would make. They created these exceptional and unique pieces that were very important to southern art.”

In the early 20^th century, there was the arts and crafts movement, it was about bringing together form and function. “This idea that creativity doesn’t have be something that hangs on a wall like a painting, but something we use and live with. That’s what the Peter Anderson Festival is about. Things that look beautiful, but can be integrated into everyday life.”

Throughout the museum there are displays of this type of practical art. One exhibit is considered the crown jewel of the museum and that’s the Little Room. “Walter Anderson’s muraled spaced that’s private to him and only discovered after his death in 1965. It’s a transformative, mystical place for people when they come here. It’s like a pilgrimage.”

The museum is open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.