Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art awarded $1 million grant to complete campus construction

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - The Ohr O’Keefe Museum of Art was recently awarded a grant totaling $1 million. The grant comes from the Mississippi Gulf Coast Restoration Fund and will aid in the completion of the museum’s campus.

The museum’s executive director David Houston said the project is long overdue.

“We are just very grateful to the legislative delegation that supported our efforts,” Houston said.

The museum had previously faced several delays with construction dating back to when Hurricane Katrina slammed the Coast.

“We were close to being finished,” Houston said. “That changed all of the zoning codes and we basically had to go back and redesign, and the cost kept escalating.”

The updated construction plan for the campus will be broken down into three phases and will last approximately six to eight months.

“This will enable us to finish galleries, to finish our grand staircase, and to finish the final pavilion between our four metal pod galleries,” Houston said.

Once the architectural site is finished, the museum will be certified as an official Frank Gehry project.

“As most people know, it’s a Frank Gehry building,” Houston said. “He is the most famous architect in the world, a global architect. We’re his only museum in the Southeast, which means that we will become a part of his global network. His PR firm will broadcast the Gulf Coast and Mississippi.”

The museum will receive the funds in the fall of 2023 and the construction will follow in the winter of 2023.

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