Natchez sparks the imagination. It’s a place of insurmountable aesthetics, rich in legend, and riddled in story. Such an environment is fertile ground for creatives, especially those seeking a slower pace (and lower overhead) than in other, larger art cities.
Gallerist/artist couple Stacy and André Conde are an example of this. In search of a better life-balance, they relocated their gallery, Conde Contemporary from Miami to Natchez in 2020. “For us, it made perfect sense,” said Stacy. “I genuinely believe when a person is removed from endless traffic and the fast pace of city life, when they have the space to slow down, breathe, and think—they create. Natchez is also surrounded by the greatest creation of all, nature, which is an inspirational factor. Art is in our DNA, and the Natchez way of life allows for its expression.”
Many of the artists and arts organizations drawn to the “Natchez way of life” have established their studios and galleries right in the city’s walk-able downtown district—making it easy for visitors to take on an arts-forward tour of Natchez.
Start by making an appointment at Conner Burns’ Studio on Franklin Street, where you can see one of Mississippi’s potters at work. For decades, Burns has been creating one-of-a-kind ceramic works inspired by nature—he has said he wants even his functional pottery to look as though it has grown from the earth, rather than been created by man. If you visit from June 21–22, you can take part in Burns’s “Plates & Platters” workshop and create your own interpretation of his style to bring home.
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Conde Contemporary
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From there, walk over to Main Street, where you’ll find the Condes’ gallery inside the circa-1898 Greek Revival building that was once the Bank of Mississippi. Inside you’ll find a curation of representational works by artists the globe over, including Kevin Sloan and his poetic interpretations of nature, the “subtle surrealism” of Jeff Faust, the gestural sculptures of Aimee Perez, and Andrés Conde’s own nostalgia-influenced work. (If you want to extend your explorations into an overnight experience—the Condes offer arts-forward overnight accommodations above their gallery called the Natchez Gallery Suites.)
Just three hundred feet away, ArtsNatchez is the best place in town to get a concentrated sense of the area’s wellsprings of creative talent. Inside, you’ll find works by more than thirty-five local artists—from Carolyn Weir’s kinetic sculptures to Elizabeth Wolf’s still lifes and Jeff Bryant’s ceramics.
Keep going down Main for a chance to meet one of Mississippi’s most acclaimed watercolorists, Wyatt Waters. Waters’s gallery is one of the newest to Natchez—opened just this past spring. Waters works on-location, usually en plein air, capturing scenes from across the American South. His renderings of The Bluff City take center stage here, and he can on occasion be seen around town wherever inspiration hits.
Close out your tour in traditional Natchez fashion, by stepping back in time. Over on State Street is the Stratton Chapel Gallery, found behind the First Presbyterian Church and across from City Hall, and inside, you’ll find Natchez in Historic Photographs—a collection of more than 500 photographs dating as far back as 1860, all of Natchez. See the steamboats as they looked coming down the Mississippi River almost two hundred years ago, the bustling downtown in its glory days, and moments from before, during, and after the Civil War.
Learn more at visitnatchez.org.
