Hattiesburg, Miss. In the theater’s cramped back room, Vicki Taylor glues together small figurines that hang over electrical boxes, slide down drain pipes and hide in nooks and crannies waiting to be found by someone curious enough to get on their hands and knees to search.
Taylor and her husband, Rick, opened the Hattiesburg Pocket Museum — also known as “the smallest museum in Mississippi” — in 2020, hoping to bring joy and traffic to downtown during the coronavirus shutdown. The surreal scenes she created have helped transform a grey, smelly alley into a major community center and tourist destination.
“You may feel frustrated, but you’ll leave excited,” said Brianna Moore, who lives in Hattiesburg and routinely brings her two sons to the free museum. “My kids love it.”
The museum began as a small display facing the alley behind the Saenger Theater in Hattiesburg. It has since grown to include a small art gallery, a movie theater, colorful murals, a key chain and DVD exchange, a rainbow bridge for departed pet collars, and a motion-activated dance area that plays music along with disco lighting.
“It’s the average alley in everyone’s city,” Taylor said. “It just took looking at it in a different way to envision what it could be.”
Taylor’s husband is executive director of the Hattiesburg Convention Committee, which operates the museum and theater. The organization estimates that more than 300,000 people have visited the museum since the museum opened, coinciding with a more than 40% increase in Hattiesburg’s tourism economy, according to Visit Hattiesburg CEO Marlo Dorsey.
Dorsey attributed this growth to concerted efforts by city leaders to develop and enhance the city’s culture, entertainment activities and arts scene, including an initiative to paint 100 murals throughout the city.
Unique attractions like the Hattiesburg Pocket Museum and nearby Lucky Rabbit, a massive vintage store known for its creative displays, also draw visitors, Dorsey said.
Tony Lemon, who has lived in Hattiesburg since 1990, said he has seen a “huge renaissance” downtown over the past decade. He recently opened eYrthBeat Coffee Company a short walk from the museum, and believes the downtown attractions help attract customers to his store.
The pocket museum also served as a proving ground for local artists. Gabby Smith, who painted several of the murals in the alley, said it helped her build confidence while she focused on pursuing art as a full-time career. Now she watches her children running through the alley, pointing to several murals and asking, “Mom, did you paint this too?”
“This is a city that believes in art and believes in artists,” said Shaw Ingram, who opened Wax Fantastic Records downtown in November. “There is nowhere else I would want to open this business.”
Back in her workshop, Taylor marvels at how popular the museum has become. I thought it would fade away after the pandemic. She now spends much of her time supervising the museum’s ever-changing exhibits. But she said her time and energy are worth the effort to help introduce more people to the city she loves.
“Hattiesburg is not a beach town, and it doesn’t have mountains,” Taylor said. “There has to be something to keep people off the highway.”