The Mississippi School of the Arts (MSA) Foundation has established the Vicki Land Memorial Scholarship honoring the lifework of beloved community member and artist Vicki Arrington Land.
MSA is a statewide residential school located in Brookhaven that provides advanced programs of study in music, theatre, visual arts, dance, literary arts, and media arts for artistically gifted eleventh and twelfth grade students.
Vicki Arrington Land was a well-respected art teacher and innovator for many years. She was born and raised in Brookhaven Mississippi. She obtained a Fine Arts degree from Louisiana Tech University. After teaching on the secondary level in Shreveport, Louisiana, she moved back to her hometown in 1977, where she continued to teach art at Brookhaven High School. As the success of the program grew, she was able to introduce four levels of art into the education program for the very first time in the history of the High School.
After retiring, Land continued to be an advocate for art education and taught students and adults out of her studio. She was also very active in producing her own work in watercolor and pottery which was sold both privately and in local shops around Brookhaven.
Her students have carried on her legacy through the years. Many of them have become successful artists, teachers, architects and advocates for art education.
Until 2020, she served as an adjudicator for visual art applicants at the Mississippi School of the Arts (MSA). Her legacy also continues through her daughter Brandy Land Johnson, who is an established artist and teacher in the Brookhaven community.
In order to honor ‘Mrs. Vicki’, the Land family established this scholarship to encourage and support students who desire to continue Mrs. Land’s love and passion for the arts by pursuing a future in Art Education.
MSA Executive Director Dr. Suzanne Hirsch, said: “There have been many students who were accepted into MSA because of the work of Mrs. Vicki. Her ability to identify the potential of future artists has enabled MSA to have many wonderful students over the years. We are so blessed to have known Mrs. Vicki and had her as a part of the MSA Family as an adjudicator. She was such a light for the art community in Brookhaven and for Mississippi.”
The Vicki Land Memorial Scholarship will provide a scholarship each year for the next ten years, to a deserving Mississippi School of the Arts Visual Arts graduate pursuing a degree in Art Education.