On Saturday, March 8, a new art exhibit opens in Jackson, Mississippi, at the Two Mississippi Museums. Entitled Hurricane Katrina: Mississippi Remembers, Photographs by Melody Golding, the pictorial exhibit will be the first in a series of programs designed to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the devastating 2005 hurricane.
Together with an accompanying display of artifacts gathered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the photographic exhibit will help tell the stories of our state’s strength and resilience in the face of such catastrophic devastation, while honoring the hundreds of Mississippians who died as a result of Katrina.
When Katrina made landfall on the coastal border of Mississippi and Louisiana on August 29, 2005, its 125-mph winds and its storm surge of over 30 feet would forever mark it as one of our nation’s worst natural disasters in recorded history.
The photographs within this exhibit relay a more comprehensive look into Katrina’s destruction to Mississippians’ homes, businesses, and lives. In fact, it depicts scenes and stories never told by the mainstream media of that time, since the plight of survivors in New Orleans dominated national news after Katrina’s landfall.
That lack of coverage was what prompted photographer Melody Golding, a native of Vicksburg, Mississippi, to closely document the tragedy, loss, and remarkable resilience she witnessed firsthand when she traveled to the Gulf Coast as a Red Cross volunteer to help bring food and water to victims of Katrina.
But this is not Golding’s first photographic exhibit of Hurricane Katrina. In 2007, multiple museums showcased her work in an exhibit called Katrina: Mississippi Women Remember, a collection which was eventually acquired by The Smithsonian.
Also, the University Press of Mississippi published a book of Golding’s Katrina photographs under the same title. This book can be purchased online at upress.state.ms.us/Books/K/Katrina, with all book royalties going to artists impacted by Katrina.
To visit Golding’s current exhibit, Hurricane Katrina: Mississippi Remembers, please note that the Two Mississippi Museums (the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum) are open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission to the museums and special exhibitions are $15 for adults, $13 for military members and seniors ages 60 and over, $8 for youth ages 4-22, and free for children 3 and under.
But everyone is offered free admission to the Two Mississippi Museums on Sundays.
Hurricane Katrina: Mississippi Remembers, Photographs by Melody Golding will be on exhibit from March 5 through November 7, 2025, giving all Mississippians ample opportunity to visit and learn about Hurricane Katrina and the mark it forever left on our state.
For more information on Golding’s prestigious photographic display or other exhibits showing at the Two Mississippi Museums, call 601.576.6850, or email info@mdah.ms.gov.
