Cool Off, Explore Jackson
Let’s face it: summers in Mississippi can be – swampy. We’ve compiled a list of spots to help you cool off and stay dry – and a learn more about the past, present and future of the City With Soul!
Two Mississippi Museums
At the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History, you can spend hours – even days – exploring Mississippi – from thousands of years ago, all the way to modern times.
At the Civil Rights Museum, experience eight distinct galleries that guide you from the struggle for freedom through the Jim Crow South and beyond to the present moment.
At the Museum of Mississippi History, deep time and more recent moments combine. Exhibits spanning thousands of years include Native American artifacts from 13,000 BC and slave shackles, and a functioning, automated cotton gin.
And, right now, The World of Marty Stuart is on special exhbition!
Mississippi Museum of Art
The Mississippi Museum of Art invites you to stroll numerous masterpieces inside their pristine, climate-controlled galleries.
Mississippi’s largest art museum has over 4,000 works, including the world’s most extensive collection by and relating to Mississippians and their diverse heritage. Many pieces can be seen in the permanent collection, New Symphony of Time.
On view through September 11 is "A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration."
If you venture outside, the Art Garden offers wifi and al fresco dining and a splash pad for little ones to get a break from the heat, too.
Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
Named one of the Top 10 “Most Amazing Baseball Museums in America” by ESPN, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum contains various sports-related, interactive exhibits. Touch-screen television kiosks allow museum visitors to access archival footage, achievement data, biographical information and more than 500 interviews with famous Mississippi athletes like Jerry Rice, Brett Favre, Archie Manning, Ralph Boston and Dizzy Dean.
Mississippi Children’s Museum
What better way to combat the heat than with the Mississippi Children’s Museum—a fun, 40,000-square-foot learning lab with educational and interactive exhibits.
Focusing on literacy, health and nutrition, cultural arts, science and technology, engineering and mathematics, and Mississippi heritage, the galleries engage young learners through touch, movement and good old-fashioned fun.
Guided events and learning sessions are open to most age groups and focus on fun and memorable ways to make, think, or interact with STEM learning and other disciplines. Their splash pad out front is a nice cool-down, too, included with museum admission.
Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
Located in the LeFleur’s Bluff Education and Tourism Complex, the Museum of Natural Science overlooks a 300-acre natural preserve.
Inside, though, roam the 73,000 square feet of exhibition space as well as a 100,000-gallon aquarium. The museum offers multiple ways to learn about the unique natural heritage of both Mississippi and the greater South.
Currently Featured: Space: A Journey to Our Future.