In 2013, visual artist Jerrod Partridge and fellow artist David West designed a unique pop-up art gallery in Jackson: Art Space 86. The creative space started as a one-night art exhibition in a vacant storefront to showcase local artists’ talent while producing opportunities to involve and supplement the surrounding community. By 2014, this pair of Mississippi-native artists united with Fischer Galleries to create the Art Lover’s Soiree, an event that brings together art lovers in February. Due to its success, Lover’s Soiree has become an annual, well-attended event.
Art Space 86 has also done work with non-profit organizations to take part in community engagement such as their work on changing storage PODS into short-term galleries for the Greater Belhaven Neighborhood Foundation. They have also worked with the Mississippi Museum of Art by creating a temporary gallery space on the lawn for the Town Creeks Art Festival. The event introduces The Big Draw Mississippi, which is Mississippi’s spin on the global drawing festival The Big Draw. Presently, Art Space 86 partners with the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Miss., to continue producing various community events.
Art Space 86 will host another free, pop-up art gallery event, Unframed @Unwrapped, on Thursday, Nov. 14, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., located at The Flamingo JXN (3011 N. State St.). Once the day is over, the gallery will be “86’ed” until the next scheduled event. The exhibition will feature small, unframed drawings and paintings illustrated by Jerrod of Italy, New York City, Massachusetts and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
For more information on the event, find it on Facebook here.
