… This year’s design features Theora Hamblett painting
OXFORD, Miss. – For the 11th year, the University of Mississippi Museum is offering a collectible holiday keepsake, this time featuring an image created by Oxford’s beloved visionary artist Theora Hamblett.
The gold-plated commemorative keepsake is available for $20 plus tax. Collectibles from previous years featuring local historic sites – Barnard Observatory, Old Skipwith House, Brandt Memory House, Lyceum, Rowan Oak, Ventress Hall, Lafayette County Courthouse, Oxford City Hall and Theora Hamblett House – and a historic Ole Miss women’s basketball jersey also can be purchased individually for $20 each plus tax, or as a set of 11 for $200 plus tax.
Orders can be placed through the Museum’s gift shop from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, or with credit card by phoning 662-915-7073. Orders to be shipped must be placed by Dec. 15 and require a $5 handling fee.
“The collectible keepsake is an annual tradition that the University of Mississippi Museum produces for the Museum Store,” said William Pittman Andrews, director of the University Museum and Historic Houses. “Last year we expanded on representing historic houses to representing objects from the permanent collection. To use the image of Theora Hamblett’s 1966 painting ‘Christmas Trees’ was the most natural thing to do.”
Theora Hamblett, a schoolteacher, was born in Paris, Miss. and spent her adult life in Oxford, where she began painting at the age of 55. Her work falls into three distinct categories: old home memories, children’s games, and dreams and visions.
“Although we’ve often thought of her as one of Oxford’s best kept secrets, ‘Ms. Theora’ is a very important artist in the history of American art,” Andrews said, adding that her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the subject of a traveling exhibition across the Southeast beginning in 2013.
The vision of Christmas trees represented on this image came from an event Theora Hamblett wrote about: “… we rode out one night to look at Christmas decorations. We came to a house on a hill where several trees in the front yard were lighted up with Christmas lights. Each tree had different colored lights. We stopped and just sat in the car for a few minutes, looking at the beauty of that scene.”
Museum members and Friends of the Museum receive a 10 percent discount on all merchandise in the museum store.
For more information, call 662-915-7073 or visit the University of Mississippi Museum