Museum receives grant from Mississippi Arts Commission

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) – A local museum has received a grant to help keep its doors open.

“This museum is all about keeping the blues alive and spreading the word of the blues it’s a rich culture here in Mississippi and so many young people don’t know where they got hip hop music that they listen to every day,” said Mansfield.

For the Black Prairie Blues Museum to keep the blues alive they have to keep the bank account in the black.

Board Director Deborah Mansfield says that this museum is nonprofit and they rely on the community to help them keep the doors open.

“Right now we are getting private donations we do fundraisers in the Museum at least once a month that helps raise just enough money to keep the lights on pay the insurance and anything that we might need to help buy for the museum right now,” said Mansfield.

A 28 hundred dollar grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission COVID Relief Fund is providing a welcome shot in the arm.

“That money did help pay and has helped pay for the utilities here and the insurance and the security system here that we need to keep this building open for our events. Grants are very important to museums and help pay for staff infrastructure programs education exhibits without grants I don’t know how any museum would survive so they’re extremely important. This MAC grant that we have received is the very first grant that we have applied for so we’re taking baby steps there are a lot of great grants out there and we think we are on our way now that we have all of our information together,” said Mansfield.

Museum staff is actively seeking out more grants to apply for to help them expand their collections and programs.

The Starkville Arts Council also received a Covid Relief Grant.