Jackson Free Press

The Art Garden at the Mississippi Museum of Art opened in 2011, and filled a need for an outdoor downtown venue. The museum had the diverse creative community of Jackson in mind when they planned and built the beautiful collaborative space.

"It's definitely important (to engage local artists)," says Julian Rankin, director of media and public relations at the museum. "When we built the Art Garden, it really opened up the types of events we can have here. It has really cemented itself as a great music venue. We are really pleased to be able to have this place and use it to strengthen relationships within the art community."

Not only does the space connect the art community metaphorically, but also geographically, with its C Spire stage, splash pad and green lawn, stretching between the museum and the Greater Jackson Arts Council right next door to Thalia Mara Hall. In the three years since its opening, the museum has continued to celebrate the varieties of artistic expression in Jackson with an array of events, including High Note Jam, a concert series presented by the museum and the Arts Council.

The upcoming High Note Jam on Sept. 11 will combine the concert series with another recurring museum event—Screen on the Green.

Local musicians Bill and Temperance will perform, in their second High Note Jam appearance. The bluegrass duo will cover songs associated with cinema icons the Coen Brothers, with music from films such as "No Country for Old Men," "O! Brother, Where art Thou?" and "True Grit."

The Coen Brothers' Nicolas Cage-led comedy "Raising Arizona" will be shown on the lawn following the concert for the Screen on the Green portion of the event. "We usually have a theme. When we started, we wanted each concert to be a different night," says Special Events Director Tammy Golden of the Greater Jackson Arts Council. "We invited Bill and Temperance back because we knew they have Coen Brothers music in their repertoire. It's a way to honor the great music in their films, which is vast." Previous themes have included a range of genres, from rock to blues to classical.

Funding from community grants enables the Arts Council to team up with the museum and create an environment for families to interact with local artists in inventive ways. High Note Jam also brings in an audience that wouldn't necessarily visit the museum otherwise.

"The group of people we serve is a different group of people than who the museum serves. It's usually a diverse crowd—different ages, different backgrounds," Golden says. "It's a nice couple of hours to spend downtown enjoying free music, kind of a pre-weekend."

The end goal of the joint event, for Golden, is to promote local musicians, like Bill and Temperance, and the local art community as a whole. "One of the things we do here at the Arts Council is promoting local artists that have not been featured in galleries, yet. With High Note Jam, it's the same idea with musicians," she says. "We want to feature musicians that aren't heard all the time. We want to spotlight them and give others the opportunity to hear music they might not usually hear."

Rankin says the union is beneficial for MMA because the Arts Council usually has plenty of options for musical guests.

High Note Jam is at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St., 601-960-1515), 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 11. "Raising Arizona" will be shown at dusk, following the concert. The event is free with a cash bar and refreshments available for purchase.