Here's a recent (5/14/08) Christian Science Monitor article about how the arts are playing a big part in the revival of Bay St. Louis.  

The Arts in Hancock County: Did You Know...........

• Bay St. Louis was cited as one of the top three "Best Small Art Towns in America" in USA Today?
  
  
• The Lumberyard is not really a lumberyard but an Art Center with rented artist studios?
  
  
• Hancock County has its very own community public radio station? WQRZ-LP 103.5 is operated by the Hancock County Amateur Radio Association.
  
  
• Two local photographers have had "coffee table'' books published? Ken Murphy's "My Gulf Coast Home" and Sandra Russell Clark's " ---" are beautiful editions.
  

• Carter Church has (at last count) 108 Alpha Awards for Haute' Couture which is more than any other single dress designer.
  

• The battle of Bay St. Louis is chronicled by local author Paul La Violette in his book entitled "Sink or Be Sunk"?
  
  
• We have a mother- daughter belly dancer duo? Tribe Banazar performs locally and regionally.
  

• The Gulf Coast Chorale has performed in Austria, Italy and twice at Carnegie Hall in New York City?
  
  
• The Arts web site is www.hancock-art.com?
  
  
• Legendary jazz musician, Pete Fountain, makes his home in Bay St. Louis and performs twice weekly at Hollywood Casino?
  
  
• A fabric collage created by Lori Gordon has been accepted by the Smithsonian Institution? The work is entitled "Labat:A Creole Legacy" and it is based on the life of Celestine Labat who lived to be 104 years old.
  
  
• Bay Printmaking Studio is the only non-toxic printmaking studio on the Gulf Coast?
  
  
• The famous historian Stephen Ambrose, who could have chosen anywhere in the world to live, chose to live in Bay St Louis?
  
  
• That noted costume designer, Carter Church, has received an unprecedented -- Abbey awards for his creative carnival gowns?
  
  
• The almost lost art of Spencerian writing, such as evident in the Declaration of Independence, is still being practiced by local artist Pat Wilson?
  
  
  
• That beloved folk artist, Alice Moseley, who died at 94 will live on in a museum dedicated to her?