Eudora Welty House and Garden

Highlights at the Eudora Welty House and Garden (EWHG) during 2018 include the successful conclusion of the three-year run of the "Jane Austen in the Welty Garden" mini-film series. We again partnered with Carolyn Brown representing the Jane Austen Society of North America/Mississippi Region, Crossroads Film Society, and the Mississippi Humanities Council, which funded the entire series. Three films were presented on alternate Friday nights in September and October; they included the 2005 version of Persuasion with Amanda Root, Belle, and per usual, the season ended with a hilarious comedy, Austenland. Over 800 viewers patronized the series over the last three years, offering evidence that there is indeed a following for film adaptations of great works of fiction and/or for films about the authors who wrote them. EWHG staff and colleagues at the Mississippi Humanities Council have expressed interest in continuing the film series but with a different cinematic genre. Musicals, mysteries, film adaptations of works by other Mississippi or "Southern" writers have been proposed, as has screening "the worst of" examples of such adaptations. The possibilities for future programming are many!

Our partnership with Lemuria Books in Jackson also continues. Jennifer Egan's signing for Manhattan Beach in the fall of 2017 saw a packed house in the Education and Visitors Center, a problem we can solve during good weather months. Charles Frazier was our first author to present out-ofdoors on the Welty House front yard. Luckily late April showers held off and more than 80 enthusiasts attended his book signing for Varina. We welcomed Leif Enger in November for his latest novel, Virgil Wander, and Valeria Luiselli was on board for a special Valentine's treat February 14 when she will read from her latest novel, Lost Children Archive. The Eudora Welty Foundation also partners with the EWHG on many of these book signings, helping with publicity and providing reception items we cannot provide being a state agency. My special thanks to Jeanne Luckett for her help and support of this partnership from its early inception.

Other accomplishments at the EWHG during 2018 pertain to important "nuts and bolts" building and maintenance projects. The original garden signage installed in 2004 had begun to deteriorate and were replaced with new text panels in early September in time for a visit from Region 9 of the Garden Club of America. The EWHG's Cereus Weeders garden volunteers partnered with the Jackson Garden Club to host approximately 45 regional Garden Club of America board members from all over the south. Volunteers took GCA members through tours of the garden using new garden room scripts produced by longtime garden conservator Susan Haltom and Special Project Coordinator Rachel Lott. EWHG house and garden volunteer Cindy Lyons presented Night Blooming Cereus starts to guests as a parting gift. There were none to spare, they were so popular! Mary Alice Welty White was on hand to talk with interested club members about Welty's home and family. This visit also inspired other maintenance work including another cleaning and repainting of all garden trellises and arbors, the cleaning of the pathway down to the clubhouse in the woodland section of the garden, and power-washing the walls of the "sheditorium." Additional carpentry repairs, scraping, and repainting was also done around the exterior of the Welty House and the Education and Visitors Center.

Rachel Lott fully curated the temporary exhibit which opened to the public on February 26. She is the inspiration and creative force behind For the Record: Music, Storytelling and Eudora Welty, an exhibit that highlights the ways that one form of art can inspire others. Several recordings of some of the songs treated in the exhibit are directly available to patrons through Spotify, a first for any exhibit in the Education and Visitors Center. Well done, Rachel!

Suzanne Marrs continues to spearhead our annual Continuing Education Units (CEU) program led again this year with Michael Pickard (Millsaps College). Complementing For the Record, this year's CEU theme also revolves around the significance of music in Welty's life and work. "Within the Aura of Music: Eudora Welty's 'Powerhouse...