Featured Image: Tupelo CVB
Tupelo is known first and foremost as Elvis’ birthplace. There are some 100,000 visitors who come each year to see the small shotgun house where he was born and the adjacent museum chronicling his life right beside it.
But if you spend time downtown, you’ll notice something else: murals cover the buildings, a museum runs shows in an old bank, and there’s live music on the weekends. Tupelo has created a town filled with art of all mediums. So if you come for Elvis, stay for everything else.
The Murals
Walking around downtown, you’ll see the town painted in colorful, meaningful murals that have popped up over the past decade. Of course, some are about Elvis, like the “Icehouse Elvis” by Morris McCain that shows him in a collection of iconic outfits. Kit Stafford painted “Jailhouse Rock” next to Van Atkins Jewelers in 2017, and Ryan Christenson, a nationally recognized graffiti artist, painted a large-scale Elvis portrait live during the 2018 Tupelo Elvis Festival.
But as with all things you’ll discover in Tupelo, not everything is about Elvis. Lujan Perez and MJ Torrecampo created a mural about the Chickasaw Nation, featuring Chief Piominko and Chief Tishominko. There’s a mural from 2012 with tractors and sunflowers, painted by Tupelo High School students, and another bookstack mural honors Reed’s Department Store, which has operated downtown for more than a century. Another says “Greetings from Tupelo” in a vintage postcard style, perfect for a photo op.
The murals are part of “Off The Wall: Changing the ARTmosphere in Tupelo Brick by Brick,” a community project that started around 2017. You can follow a trail around downtown to see them all.
The Gumtree Museum
The Gumtree Museum of Art opened in 1985 inside the old Peoples Bank and Trust Company building, beginning as the Tupelo Artist Guild in 1982. Today, it hosts rotating exhibitions, workshops, and lectures and it can be rented for weddings and events.
Gather for Music With the Locals
Blue Canoe is a bar that’s known to host live music regularly. For dinner and a show, Blue Canoe has a restaurant side that serves Southern bar food, and there are over 100 beers on tap.
Another excellent live music option is Downunder, which offers handcrafted cocktails and international pub food. For larger shows, Backline Music Hall holds 100 people and books touring artists alongside local performers. But for the big-ticket shows, the Huntington Bank Arena’s 10,000 seats regularly welcome big concerts and large events.
Chickasaw History
Before Tupelo was established in 1870, the Chickasaw Nation called it home. Chief Piominko and Chief Tishominko led the tribe until the Indian Removal Act forced their removal in 1837. Today, there’s a Chickasaw Heritage Trail to honor the history, which includes several stops around town like the Chief Piominko Statue at Fairpark, the Natchez Trace Parkway Visitor Center, the Chickasaw Village Site, and the Battle of Ackia marker downtown. The Chickasaw Heritage Center will open in March 2027 in Tupelo and will tell the Chickasaw story from a uniquely Chickasaw perspective.
| This article is presented in partnership with Tupelo CVB, a Modern South Founding Partner.
