Mississippi: Dille Fund for Visual Art Acquisition

Joe Overstreet (born 1933), Laurel, 2002. Oil on stainless steel cloth. Collection of the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson. Partial gift by Joe Overstreet and Corinne Jennings, and purchased with funds provided by Sanderson Farms, the Katherine Loyocano McCravey Fund and the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Dille Fund for Visual Art Acquisition, 2017.097. © Courtesy of the artist, 2018

The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC), through its Dille Fund for Visual Art Acquisition, encourages the growth of publically accessible art collections to better enable Mississippians from across the state to engage with and enjoy the visual arts. Based on a 1993 bequest from a constituent honoring the memory of his parents, the Dille Fund underwrites the accession of landscapes and seascapes. During the years when grants from the fund are available (as they are offered only when interest from the fund permits), MAC awards grants of $15,000-$20,000 to state based museums, arts organizations and cultural institutions—as well as to government agencies, colleges and federally recognized Native American communities—to fund the purchase of a piece of visual art for public display.

To be eligible, applicants must have an art collection available for public view in a facility compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and a three-year history of public programming. Applicants also must demonstrate how the work of art to be acquired would reflect their organizational mission and benefit their audience. To learn more, contact MAC Executive Director Malcolm White.