Things to Do in Ocean Springs
Ocean Springs' real draws go well beyond a generic beach day: a museum dedicated to one of the twentieth century's more singular American watercolorists, a working pottery studio founded in 1928, a national-award-winning walkable downtown, and boat-only access to the same undeveloped barrier island that artist spent decades painting.
The Walter Anderson Museum of Art
The Walter Anderson Museum of Art, at 510 Washington Avenue, opened in 1991 and is dedicated to the work of Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965) and his brothers Peter (a potter) and James McConnell Anderson (a painter and ceramist). The museum's cruciform building, designed by architect Ed Pickard and built of redwood painted gray, connects directly to the Ocean Springs Community Center, where murals Walter Anderson painted in 1952 are preserved and remain on permanent display. Knowing Anderson's biography before visiting changes the experience: he spent his later years making solo rowboat crossings to Horn Island, twelve miles offshore, to paint alone for days at a time, was periodically hospitalized for schizophrenia, and died of lung cancer in 1965, after which his family discovered "the Little Room" -- floor-to-ceiling murals in his cottage that he had painted for himself over roughly two decades and shown almost no one, alongside an estate eventually totaling more than 30,000 works. This is a genuinely significant American art museum, not a small-town curiosity.
Shearwater Pottery: A Working Studio Since 1928
Peter Anderson founded Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs in 1928, achieving national recognition at New York's Contemporary American Ceramics Exhibition by 1931. This page did not independently confirm Shearwater Pottery's current visiting hours, tour availability, or retail offerings -- confirm current visitor information directly with Shearwater Pottery before planning a visit, but its nearly century-long operating history as a working pottery studio tied directly to the same Anderson family behind the Walter Anderson Museum of Art makes it a genuine complement to a museum visit, not a separate, unrelated attraction.
Downtown Washington Avenue: A National Main Street Award Winner
Downtown Ocean Springs' Washington Avenue and Ocean Avenue corridor won the National Main Street Center's Great American Main Street Award in 2013 -- a real, juried national recognition, not a self-applied marketing label. The district is shaded by live oaks reported at more than 300 years old and holds a dense concentration of art galleries, boutiques, cafes, and restaurants within a genuinely walkable footprint, with live music at spots like Mosaic's and Leo's most nights per local descriptions. The Live Oaks Bicycle Route offers a shaded cycling circuit through the older residential streets surrounding downtown, marked with art and history features along the way.
Front Beach and East Beach
Front Beach and East Beach, both public and both within walking distance of downtown, offer calm, shallow water well-suited to swimming and paddleboarding, with designated fire pits at Front Beach for evening bonfires. This is a real, practical amenity most beach towns can't match: two swimmable public beaches genuinely walkable from a nationally recognized downtown arts district, rather than requiring a separate drive.
Davis Bayou and Gulf Islands National Seashore
The Davis Bayou unit of Gulf Islands National Seashore, just south of Highway 90 east of downtown, includes the William M. Colmer Visitor Center with exhibits and a bookstore, a roughly 2-mile Davis Bayou hiking trail winding through coastal forest and over two bayous, a fishing pier, a picnic area, a campground, and a boat launch open daily 6 a.m. to sunset. Ranger-led programs run most weekends. This is also the practical launch point for reaching Horn Island, Petit Bois Island, and the National Seashore's other barrier islands by private boat or a park-approved charter operator -- the same undeveloped water Walter Anderson crossed by rowboat for decades, now reachable by any visitor with access to a boat.
Ocean Springs' Festival Calendar
The Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival, held the first weekend of every November in downtown Ocean Springs, draws more than 150,000 visitors and 400-plus artist booths, making it Mississippi's largest fine arts festival. The Spring Arts Festival, the last weekend of March among downtown's historic live oaks, features more than 100 artists, crafters, and plant vendors. ArtWalk transforms downtown storefronts into temporary galleries each September, and Cruisin' the Coast brings roughly 5,000 classic cars to the broader Mississippi Gulf Coast each fall, with Ocean Springs hosting three days of the event including a Friday Night Sock Hop and Street Party. This site's Seasonal Recreation page for Ocean Springs covers the full annual calendar in more depth.
Mardi Gras: The Season Opener
Ocean Springs hosts the first parade of the Coastal Mississippi Mardi Gras season, with nearly 100 floats moving through downtown offering beads and trinkets -- a genuine, dated, recurring civic event distinct from the more casino-town-associated Mardi Gras imagery some visitors might expect from the Mississippi Gulf Coast generally.
What This Page Doesn't Cover
This page covers Ocean Springs' real, well-documented, distinctive draws -- the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Shearwater Pottery, downtown's national Main Street recognition, both public beaches, Davis Bayou and barrier-island access, and the city's recurring festival calendar. It does not state current museum hours, admission fees, Shearwater Pottery's current visiting details, or current festival dates for a specific upcoming year. Confirm current hours, admission, and event dates directly with the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Shearwater Pottery, and the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce before planning a specific visit. Nothing on this page is a substitute for current, official visitor information.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: the Walter Anderson Museum of Art's own site and Wikipedia's sourced entries on Walter Anderson, the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, and the Shearwater Cottage Murals for museum history, building design, and Anderson family biography; Wikipedia's entry on Peter Anderson for Shearwater Pottery's 1928 founding and 1931 national recognition; the National Main Street Center and msmainstreet.com for downtown's 2013 Great American Main Street Award; coastalmississippi.com for Front Beach and East Beach's amenities; the National Park Service's own Gulf Islands National Seashore materials for the Davis Bayou unit's facilities and barrier-island charter-access process; and the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce for the recurring festival calendar (Peter Anderson Arts & Crafts Festival, Spring Arts Festival, ArtWalk, Cruisin' the Coast, Mardi Gras). Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: current museum hours and admission fees; Shearwater Pottery's current visiting hours and tour availability; and current-year specific festival dates. Confirm all current visitor information directly with the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Shearwater Pottery, and the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce before planning a visit. Nothing on this page is a substitute for official current visitor information.