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Arts Commission News

Key Community Grant from Mississippi Arts Commission Benefits the City of Okolona

DATE:              August 2, 2006

CONTACT:     Susan Dobbs, Public Relations Director                                       601-359-6031 or sdobbs@arts.state.ms.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

 JACKSON— Grant funds received in 2000 from the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) allowed the City of Okolona to make a special project become a reality.  On Monday, July 31, 2006, the Carnegie Library Story Labyrinth Dedication was held in front of the Library.  A portion of the Key Community Grant funds were used to have Mississippi State University architecture and art students build the labyrinth. 

The idea for the labyrinth was realized after the culmination of storytelling sessions conducted by professional storytellers who worked with local residents.  The stories were told to children during the Summer Reading Program at the Okolona Carnegie Library and the children drew pictures based on the stories.  The stories are displayed in the tiles placed around the perimeter edge of the labyrinth.  The stories have been complied into a booklet that is sold at the Okolona Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Okolona Carnegie Library Story Labyrinth is circled by unique benches and the area is intended to serve as a spot for meditation within the city, as well as a monument to the storytelling project.  It is hoped that this project will be seen by the community as a landmark, not only representing Okolona’s past, but a celebration of a united future.  “It is inspiring to see the arts taking place in communities; especially when the spirit for which the art is created becomes part of the community’s heartbeat.  Okolona residents will be standing at the labyrinth site for years to come – remembering and telling their stories,” said Diane Williams, Arts Industry Director for the Mississippi Arts Commission.

The Okolona storytelling will continue this year at the Indian Summer Festival.  For more information, call the Carnegie Library at 662/447-2401 or the Chamber of Commerce at 662/447-5913.

The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency, funded by the Mississippi legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts and other private sources.  For more information on the agency, visit the website at www.arts.state.ms.us. 

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