Art Gallery Still Thriving After 50 Years In A Small Southern Town

In October, Lesley Silver’s Attic Gallery will celebrate fifty years in downtown Vicksburg, Mississippi. Nowadays you’re expected to have a well-developed business plan; but in 1971, when she and her husband walked into an art gallery in California, the only plan was to shop for a gift for the friend who was house sitting for them back home. The gallery owner struck up a conversation with them and mentioned that sometimes brides would register to receive art in addition to the more traditional china and silver. Lesley’s husband was in the jewelry business and thought there might be a possibility of adding art to their store.

This idea appealed to Lesley, whose mother was an accomplished artist. They had about thirty etchings, serigraphs, block prints, etc., shipped to them, which arrived during a birthday party for their young daughter. The excitement of unpacking was contagious, and several of the mothers of the guests found art they had to have. The most expensive piece was forty dollars.

Lesley soon ordered more original graphics and set up shop in a dark, dusty, very ungallery-like storage area in the attic of their downtown bridal shop. The early years were quiet, so Lesley had time to get to know the artists as well as potential customers and help them find each other. Making that connection became her life’s work. Gradually she expanded her offerings to include the work of local and regional artists and craftsmen, eventually making southern folk art a big part of the character of the Attic.

Confounding expectations, the gallery has never featured magnolias, cotton fields, and other “Southern” subjects; and

unlike most people’s image of an “Art Gallery,” the Attic has always been stuffed to bursting with art of all kinds filling the walls from floor to ceiling. Pottery, sculpture, and more spill across tables, against which more art on the floor is leaning. Lesley believes all people should live with art, so she has always tried to make it a people’s art gallery.

Fifty years later, her Attic Gallery has become a destination for travelers, and increasingly, internet shoppers looking for a one-of-a-kind painting, etching, sculpture, photograph, etc. It is a place where aspiring artists throughout the South hope to place their work; and while Lesley doesn’t feel she has “discovered” artists, she is proud of helping a number of local and regional artists find a market for their work. The Attic Gallery is the oldest art gallery in the state of Mississippi, and Lesley has been awarded the Mississippi Art Commission’s Governor’s Award for Art in the Community. In 1997 Lesley remarried; and with the help of dedicated friends and patrons, the Gallery moved to its “new” location three blocks away from its original locale. Eventually, Lesley and her husband moved into the building, their upstairs apartment doubling as gallery space for shows. Fifty years in, her work continues because, as Lesley says, “We need art to breathe.” And that’s her plan. In observance of this milestone. the gallery will be hosting an all-day celebration on Saturday, October 2, 2021, complete with a walking tour of art in downtown Vicksburg, and culminating in an opening from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. that features fifty artists associated with the Attic. Also, Lesley currently is posting a series of virtual artist galleries on atticgalleryvicksburg.com that spotlights twenty-five artists who retell the Attic’s story through their reminiscences.

For more information see Facebook.com/theatticgalleryms or atticgalleryvicksburg.com. The Attic Gallery • 1101 Washington Street • Vicksburg, MS 39183 Contact: Daniel W. Boone Phone: 601-638-9221 Email: highway61coffee@aol.com.