STARKVILLE – The Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum will be more than doubling its hours and bringing back several popular events as it looks to continue growing its number of visitors.
The museum will bring in quilters, Black historians, hold its charity gala and tree auction, and stage another 5K race this coming year.
“You can see we had a large increase in 2023, and we are on track to see similar results in 2024,” Derek Aaron, the museum’s executive director, said at a Friday work session of Starkville aldermen. “We’ve been working to improve our community engagement with social media and participation in other city programs like Pumpkin Palooza and the upcoming Christmas parade.”
In 2022, annual visitor count barely broke 200. After hiring Aaron and expanding programming, that number spiked to 813. This year the museum has tallied at least 433 visitors, with leadership confident they can maintain its popularity.
Part of that could just be how long it’s open. The museum has expanded its available hours from nine per month to 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Wednesday, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursday.
That was made possible by a roster of 14 volunteers, each of which work three hours for one day per month.
The museum has also managed to schedule roughly one event per month. In January, it will be showing the Mississippi Quilts Exhibit, a collection of quilts from 11 artists representing the Southern Fiber Artists organization. The centerpiece is a series of quilts 16 feet wide spelling “Mississippi” and representing different aspects of the state.
February is Black History Month, and the museum is working to put together an exhibit about the Needmore Community, one of Mississippi’s earliest African American neighborhoods.
The museum also recently acquired a variety of artifacts, including the World War II memorabilia and uniforms of James Philip “Buddy” Goodman, a bust of Cool “Papa” Bell, the maypole dress of Grace “Polly” Ball Bryan, Choctaw Indian baskets courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, casts and molds from the Rookwood Pottery store, and a collection of military artifacts from green beret Phillip Wood.
The Friends of the Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum will also host some of its most popular fundraising events in 2025. The second Festival of Trees will kick off with a Dec. 5 gala, followed by a two-day auction where supporters can bid on trees donated and decorated by local businesses and organizations.
Tickets are $50. In 2023 the event raised over $5,000. The Friends’ annual membership drive raises around $8,000 annually as well.
The Museum Miles 5K race will be Feb. 22.
Both the city and county also allocate funds in their annual budgets to support the museum.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
