JACKSON — Growing up in Natchez and attending church at St. Mary Basilica, Joanna Biglane has always been surrounded by exquisite art and architecture.

But it wasn’t until she began college at LSU that she knew art was her calling and passion in life. Now, Biglane is surrounded by her passion each time she enters the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson where she is the museum’s registrar.

Biglane, a 2000 graduate of Cathedral High School, earned a Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts with a concentration in art history and a minor in Italian from LSU before earning a Masters of Arts in art history at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

And despite the wealth of knowledge she obtained during her college years, Biglane said nothing adequately prepared her for job at the museum.

“I graduated from George Washington in May (of 2006) and started work at the museum that October,” Biglane said. “It was great to be able to jump right into a job. It was a trial by fire of sorts.”

Her job as registrar for the museum charges her with the responsibility of tracking, recording condition statements and keeping inventory of the 4,717 pieces in the museums permanent collection.

When Biglane found out the job was her’s, she said she was overwhelmed to earn such a prestigious job.

“I was completely honored and humbled by the whole situation,” Biglane said.

She was also happy to be able to pursue her passion so close to home.

“I was definitely happy to be back in the South after being in D.C. for two years,” she said.

She got a lot of hands-on experience in this area when the museum opened its new location less than six months into her tenure. The move, even though it was only across a parking lot, was a large project.

“I, along with a few of the curators, had to pack the entire vault and unpack every item in the collection,” Biglane said. “It was a big undertaking and we did it in just a few days.”

She is also responsible for the shipping and handling of items that come to the museum for special exhibits. The return of those items also falls under Biglane’s umbrella of responsibility.

In June 2007, the museum opened “Between God and Man: Angels in Italian Art.” The arrival of this exhibit gave Biglane the chance to get her feet wet when dealing with a traveling exhibit.

Over 150 items were shipped to the museum along with 30 curriers to oversee their handling. Once they arrived, Biglane stepped in to unpack each item and catalog it for its time in the museum.

“I had to unpack each item and record its condition and assign it a number to keep track of it while it was in the museum,” Biglane said. “When the exhibit ended, the curriers came back and we did it all over again.”

Even though the exhibit closed months ago, it remains Biglane’s favorite experience during her time at the museum because of her personal love of European art.

“I studied aboard in Italy during my freshman year at LSU. I was able to spend six weeks there,” Biglane said. “It was then that I fell in love European and, in particular, Italian, art.”

It was also during her time abroad, that she began to understand the significance of the art at St. Mary in Natchez. Biglane said she was always struck by the beauty of the pieces but finally came to understand some of the meaning behind the pieces.

“In Italy, I learned a lot about the symbolism of the art that I saw during church,” Biglane said. “One of the great things about my job is the ability to share my faith through the art that I’m surrounded by.”

Biglane will get to repay the city that jumpstarted her love of art when she returns to Natchez in October to give a presentation based on the Italian art exhibit from the museum. She will give the presentation to the Natchez Garden Club during the Oct. 2 meeting.

“I feel like I have come full circle from growing up in Natchez to now being able to come back and give this talk.”

The presentation is based on the exhibit “Between God and Man: Angels in Italian Art” which examined the evolution of angels from their beginnings in Italian art to the modern day depiction.

“When you see angels from their earliest beginning in Greek and Roman art they didn’t look like what we associate angels with today,” Biglane said.