Jackson Free Press

A new business called Sugar Ray's Sweet Shop opened downtown today, Tuesday, Feb. 14, in the former Cohen Brothers building at 224 W. Capitol St.

Mary Sanders Ferriss, the design and brand manager for Babalu Tapas & Tacos in Fondren, designed the interior of the shop, and artist Ian Hanson designed the logo.

Sugar Ray's offers truffles, jelly beans, candied apples, gourmet chocolates, old-fashioned sodas and items such as Southern Sweet Tea Pops, which are lollipops made with sweet tea in flavors such as lemon ginger, apple cinnamon and salted caramel.

For more information, call 601-955-2916 or visit Sugar Ray's Facebook page.

The Outlets of Mississippi Gets New Businesses

The Outlets of Mississippi (200 Bass Pro Drive, Pearl) recently announced two new stores opening later this year, Journeys Kidz and Cafe 570.

Journeys Kidz is a footwear retailer for children ages 5 to 12 and is an extension of the Journeys apparel store, which currently has a location in another part of the mall. Journeys Kidz offers brands such as Sperry, Polo, Vans, DC, Nike, Puma, UGG and TOMS. The store is set to open in May. For more information, visit journeys.com.

Eddie and Twyla Patterson, owners of The Girlie Boutique and Hunter's Pointe in the Outlets of Mississippi, will be launching Cafe 570. The cafe will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily and will serve breakfast items, homemade salads, soups and sandwiches. Cafe 570 is set to open in March.

For more information, visit outletsofms.com.

2 Mississippi Museums Name Directors and Site Administrator

2 Mississippi Museums, the collective name for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Museum of Mississippi History currently under development in downtown Jackson, has decided the leadership for the two upcoming museums, naming Cindy Gardner as site administrator, Pamela Junior as director of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and Rachel Myers as director of the Museum of Mississippi History.

Gardner previously worked for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as the project manager for the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, while also serving as director of collections for the department's museum division. She began at MDAH in 1999 as a collections registrar at the Old Capitol Museum after working at two museums in Florida.

Junior came to MDAH from the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, where she had been manager since 1999. She is a member of the board of directors for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and Mississippi Book Festival, and a co-founder of the Mississippi Black Theatre Festival.

Myers has been the director of the museum department of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life since 2010. She is the Mississippi state deader for the American Association of State and Local History, and serves on the boards of the Council of American Jewish Museums and Jackson 2000.

The Museum of Mississippi History will explore the state's history from earliest times to the present, with a collection that will feature artifacts acquired in the early days of MDAH, which was founded in 1902. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum will focus on the period from 1945 to 1976 and tell the story of the struggle for equal rights and fair treatment under the law. It will be the nation's first state-operated civil rights museum.

The museums will also provide expanded storage for the MDAH collection of more than 21,000 objects and will spotlight materials from the state archives. The museums are scheduled to open Dec. 9, 2017, as the centerpiece of the state's bicentennial celebration.

For more information, call 601-576-6850 or visit the MDAH website, mdah.ms.gov.

SBA 2017 Emerging Leaders Program

The Mississippi Small Business Association District Office is accepting applicants for its 2017 Emerging Leaders Program, an executive-level entrepreneurship training initiative for small-business owners that has aided more than 4,000 small-business owners since the program began.

Classes typically begin in April, and the course includes 100-plus hours of training over a seven-month period. It focuses on ways to stimulate and expand small businesses, including topics such as accessing new avenues of capital, securing government contracts, and making connections with city leaders and the financial community.

To qualify for program, a small business must be located in Hinds County or the surrounding areas, have been established for at least three years, have an annual revenue between $400,000 and $10 million, and have at least two employees. Participants must attend each class and complete all course assignments to remain in the program.

For more information or to register for the program, visit http://www.interise.org/sbaemergingleaders, email [email protected] or call 601-965-4986.