The Gordon Parks Museum Foundation received the Gordon Parks Exhibit from the Fort Scott Mercy Hospital Foundation Board on June 20, 2019.

The exhibit includes 67 of Parks’ photos and poems along with a church pew of the AME Church,  a bronze bust of Gordon Parks and the book featuring Parks’ works, Half Past Autumn.

The donated Gordon Parks Exhibit was formerly located at Mercy Hospital-Fort Scott until the hospital closed in December 2018.

Fort Scott native and world-renowned photographer and artist Gordon Parks,  donated the collection of his work to Mercy Hospital-Fort Scott in 2002 to be displayed in honor of his parents, Sarah and Andrew Jackson Parks, according to Kirk Sharp, Gordon Parks Museum Director.

The exhibit pieces will be rotated out periodically for public view and when not in use, will be stored in the museum’s archives.

“On behalf of the Gordon Parks Museum Foundation Board along with myself, we are extremely beyond excited and greatly honored to receive the collections here at the museum from the Mercy-Fort Scott Foundation Board,” Sharp said.

“Our goal with some of the collections is to eventually create a community travel exhibit on a temporary loan-out basis for local schools, organizations and businesses for the community to view,” he said.

Work is beginning to create new space to display as much of the exhibit as possible, along with starting a Gordon Parks Travel Community Exhibit, he said.

“The Gordon Parks Museum Foundation would like to give thanks and gratitude to the Mercy-Fort Scott Foundation Board for its great gift to us and the community of Fort Scott,” Sharp said.

The museum is located inside the Ellis Fine Arts Center at FSCC. The museum is funded through donations and through the support of FSCC, Sharp said.

The annual Gordon Parks Celebration is Oct. 3-5, 2019 and will be a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Gordon Parks film, The Learning Tree.