Local Jewelry Artisan Lil McKinnon-Hicks Named to Southern Arts Federation

Local Jewelry Artisan Lil McKinnon-Hicks Named to Southern Arts Federation

Jackson, MS … Lil McKinnon-Hicks, a local jewelry artisan, was one of only 23 Mississippians designated as a master artist by the Southern Arts Federation and named recently to the organization’s adjudicated registry: www.SouthernArtistry.org.

Nominated by the Mississippi Arts Commission, McKinnon-Hicks is one of approximately 300 visual artists, authors, designers, performers, film-makers and arts educators across the entire Southern U.S. (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee) who were admitted to the registry during the current year.

McKinnon-Hicks, whose work in sterling, gold and enamel is marketed as ‘Lil McKH Jewelry,’ maintains a private studio at 200 Commerce Street, located above Hal & Mal’s Restaurant in downtown Jackson.

McKinnon-Hicks’ jewelry designs are available at her studio (open Tuesday – Thursday and by appointment, 601-259-6461) as well as through Nils & Angela’s Gallery Jewelers, Mississippi Museum of Art, Mississippi History Store and the SPA at St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson.

Her work is also displayed and sold through the Mississippi Crafts Center in Ridgeland; P is for Primitive in Canton; The Attic Gallery in Vicksburg; The A Gallery in Hattiesburg; National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, TN; Gallery Janjobe in Lexington, KY; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art in Cedar Rapids, IA, and online at http://www.LilMcKHJewelry.com.

Lil McKinnon-Hicks is an exhibiting member of the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi, as well as a member of the Florida Society of Goldsmiths, the Mississippi Gem & Mineral Society, the Eastern Federation of Mineralogical & Lapidary Societies and the Southeast Federation of Mineralogical Societies. She is a member of the Mississippi Forge Council, Ethical Metalsmiths and the Precious Metal Clay Guild.

The Southern Arts Federation, a non-profit organization founded in 1975, creates partnerships and collaborations; assists in the development of artists, arts professionals and arts organizations; presents, promotes and produces Southern arts and cultural programming; and advocates for the arts and arts education. The organization is funded through the National Endowment for the Arts.

SouthernArtistry.org is an online registry dedicated to showcasing the lives and work of outstanding visual artists, writers, performers, filmmakers and arts educators who are living and working in the South. Each artist on the registry has been nominated by one of nine state arts agencies based on the quality of their work.

Pictured: Lil McKinnon-Hicks, a Mississippi jewelry artist who produces work under the name of Lil McKH Jewelry, at work in her downtown Jackson studio.