Lassiter Fine Art gallery, now on Town Square under Belle Shops, was years in the making.

The gallery is owned by Monica Lassiter Ard and Scott Barrie, who once ran Down Home Furnishings in Jackson. Ard’s mother, Vernice Brown Lassiter, studied at the Art Students League of New York and with private instructors, including Salvador Dali, and had a storied art career. Ard took to painting herself, too.