‘Walter Anderson Adventures’ at MC brings Southern artist’s legacy to life

A new multimedia and immersive exhibition at Mississippi Christian University is bringing one of the 20th century’s most enigmatic artists to life.

“Walter Anderson Adventures” centers on the life and art of the reclusive Gulf Coast artist, whose vibrant watercolors, monumental linoleum prints and intimate depictions of nature and the Mississippi shoreline have captivated generations. The walk-through exhibit, located in the main gallery of the Gore Galleries on the MC campus in Clinton, is currently open through December 2026.

At the helm of this ambitious endeavor is Southeast Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Anthony Thaxton, a 1994 MC alumnus, artist, cofounder of the Institute for Southern Storytelling at MC, and newly named director of the Gore Galleries.

The project is a culmination of his work, in conjunction with Anderson’s family, that encompasses the critically acclaimed 2021 documentary, “Walter Anderson: The Extraordinary Life and Art of the Islander,” a companion book and a second volume, “The Bicycle Logs of Walter Anderson,” and various campus exhibitions, panel discussions and student workshops.

“Walter Anderson is a bona fide genius, and his life and art have always spoken to me,” Thaxton said. “The more I learned about his life, the more excited I got. The film and the books were well received – the documentary aired on over 95 PBS stations – and as a result, people flocked to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs.

“I spent hours with the family and built such a rapport with each of them that they treat me like family now.”

Thaxton brings a lifetime of artistic passion to the project. The 2019 MC Distinguished Art Alumnus of the Year, he has built a multifaceted career as a television director, photographer, musician and educator. His Southeast Emmy Award-winning work on the documentary made him uniquely qualified to highlight Anderson, often called one of the South’s greatest and most elusive artists.

“We’re not just displaying Walter Anderson’s incredible art – we’re providing a proper context for it,” Thaxton said. “We’re presenting his life as much as we’re presenting his work. We’re telling his story.

“Knowing about Walter Anderson the man enhances your appreciation of his amazing art.”

“Walter Anderson Adventures” draws on extensive archival research and interviews with Anderson’s family, including his children, notably youngest son John G. Anderson. Thaxton gained unprecedented access to journals, artwork and personal accounts of Anderson to develop the exhibit, an immersive, one-of-a-kind look into the artist behind the famous Horn Island watercolors and Shearwater Cottage murals, among thousands of others.

Visitors will embark on a journey through Anderson’s life while viewing original pieces, many newly discovered or never before exhibited. Among the highlights: as a teenager, Anderson loses his family’s sailboat in a storm and hangs onto a beacon for two days before rescue; he travels dozens of miles down the Mississippi River in a rotten canoe; the college trip he earns to France; his self-imposed exile to Horn Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast; his impromptu trip to China; his solo bicycle rides to Florida and Texas, and much more.

“Anderson was constantly exploring, but he was always creating, making beautiful things,” Thaxton said. “’Raiders of the Lost Ark’ is my favorite movie, but Indiana Jones has nothing on Walter Anderson.”

John G. Anderson told Thaxton that, with this thorough and deeply emotional look into his father’s life, “You are reinventing how exhibits are going to be made.”

Bob Blanton, pastor of the Episcopal Church of the Creator in Clinton, enjoyed an early tour of the exhibit and proclaimed it to be a triumph. His favorite part of the experience: a look inside the artist’s “Little Room” in Anderson’s Ocean Springs cottage at Shearwater Pottery, and the handwritten copy of the 104th Psalm the artist had left inside just before his death.

“Anderson’s work was a blending of heaven and of nature,” Blanton said. “That room clearly had something to do with his mystical experience, his experience of heaven. It’s clear that he had a personal relationship with God. He heard God’s voice in that psalm, and it echoed in him. It seems that everything that came into him came out artistically.”

Concurrent to the Anderson exhibit, the Gore Galleries are also hosting “Circular Visions II,” an exhibition by master woodworker Bob Willis, through Sept. 30, and “Treasures of the Gore Galleries,” featuring works from MC’s permanent collection. Gallery hours are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesday, Thursdays and Fridays, and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Thaxton said hosting “Walter Anderson Adventures” as the first major exhibition of his tenure as director of the Gore Galleries is special.

“I’m elated that I get to do this with a family that I love,” he said. “Their cooperation has been enormous in making this a success.”

Thaxton isn’t through exploring Anderson’s rich legacy. He’s working on a graphic novel about the artist’s life that will serve as a catalog of the exhibit, and his daughter, Sydney, is writing a screenplay for a streaming series about the relationship between a young Anderson and his wife, Sissy.

With more projects on the way, “Walter Anderson Adventures” is a first in many new exhibitions to come at the Gore Galleries at MC. For more information or to schedule group tours, email athaxton@mc.edu.