Delta Blues E-Vite

Mississippi's Oldest Music Museum Presents...

AT DELTA BLUES MUSEUM

Clarksdale, Mississippi

Exhibit features Delta Blues greats like Furry Lewis, Bukka White and others

The exhibit is a series of original portrait sculptures by steel sculptor Scott Cawood, depicting legendary Mississippi Delta Blues artists. From Cawood, "I've always felt that these Delta Blues musicians were 'Artists' in the truest sense of the word. This series is meant to broaden that understanding. Each of these portraits is an attempt to capture what I hear in each individual's music and express it in their faces. In many ways, their expressions are my own. I am honored to be exhibiting my 'Blues Portraits' series at this important cultural museum. Their commitment to preserving the Delta Blues is alive, multi-faceted and firmly engaged. And by my estimation, they're doing a really wonderful job of it...come see for yourself."

Furry Lewis

About the Artist

Scott Cawood is a self-taught sculptor with a deep background in blacksmithing and metal fabrication who lives and works in the historic village of Antietam, MD. He reuses and re-purposes scrap and found steel to create almost all of his sculptures. Scott is known nationally for his "Siren Of TI," on public display at Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas. And in his native Maryland for several public art pieces including "Spire" in Frederick, MD, and "Climb & Glide" along the Great Allegheny Passage in Frostburg, MD. He has received wide recognition for his sculptures and has shown his work in galleries and museums in New York City, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Miami, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Mesa, AZ, and Maui, HI.

The opening reception is open to the media and to the public -- this event is sponsored by Visit Clarksdale, Krosstown Liquor and Friends of the Delta Blues Museum.

Exhibit sponsors are the Mississippi Arts Commission, Clarksdale-Marks Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Mississippi Delta Blues Society of Indianola, Heaton Farms, SafTcart and Friends of the Delta Blues Museum.

About the Delta Blues Museum

Established in 1979 by the Carnegie Public Library Board of Trustees and re-organized as a stand-alone museum in 1999, the Delta Blues Museum is Mississippi's oldest music museum and the nation's first museum dedicated to the American art form known as the Blues. A 2013 recipient of the IMLS National Medal for Museum and Library Services--the nation's highest honor for museum and library service to the community--and a 2014 winner of the National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Award, the Delta Blues Museum is dedicated to creating a welcoming place where visitors find meaning, value and perspective by exploring the history and heritage of the unique American musical art form, the Blues. The Museum is honored to be a Great River Road Interpretive Center.

Through its DEEPER ROOTS campaign, the museum seeks $1.2 million for new and enhanced exhibits: Expanded exhibits, including those to be housed in the Muddy Waters Addition, will enable the cultural organization to better preserve and display the history and work of blues artists from the Mississippi Delta, and advance the Museum's ability to "tell" stories that inspire and educate future generations about this important American art form.

For online donations or for more information on events or programs, please call (662) 627-6820, or visit the Museum web site at www.deltabluesmuseum.org.

Members of the press may register on the Museum website to access the PRESS ROOM for further information, images and materials.

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Shelley Ritter, Director

This newsletter is supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and,
in part, from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.