{"id":155513,"date":"2026-02-16T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=155513"},"modified":"2026-02-17T17:52:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T23:52:40","slug":"mississippi-arts-commission-funds-writer-studio-at-greenfield-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/mississippi-arts-commission-funds-writer-studio-at-greenfield-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi Arts Commission\u00a0Funds Writer Studio at Greenfield Farm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Building for the Arts grant eclipses $5 million fundraising mark for project<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Marvis Herring<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mississippi Arts Commission<\/strong> has awarded a $500,000 grant to the University of Mississippi Research Foundation<\/strong> for construction of an overnight writer studio for the university\u2019s forthcoming Greenfield Farm Writers Residency<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction is set to begin this year on the retreat-style writers compound<\/a>, which will provide Mississippi <\/strong>writers of all genres with time, seclusion and financial support to take on big projects including song cycles, movie scripts and novels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith this grant, our fundraising tops the $5 million mark,\u201d said John T. Edge<\/strong>, residency developer and director of The Mississippi Lab<\/strong><\/a>. \u201cThat support has come from University of Mississippi<\/a> alumni, good readers from across the state, family trusts, corporate foundations and the state of Mississippi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDesign for the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, recently completed, includes six new buildings and two renovated buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writers-in-residence will be able to spend one to three weeks at the 20.4-acre property, which was once owned by acclaimed author William Faulkner<\/strong><\/a>. <\/strong>Designs for the writer studios by the award-winning firm Marlon Blackwell Architects<\/strong>, of Fayetteville, Arkansas<\/strong>, reimagine vernacular building idioms, such as the dogtrot and the shotgun, as modern spaces where writers will work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MAC grant secures funding for one of four overnight writer studios, which will cluster in the woods, near the Gathering Shed<\/strong>, Edge said. A second studio is funded by a Gertrude C. Ford Foundation<\/strong> grant, and two studios offer naming opportunities for donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seventeen Mississippi organizations<\/a> received Building Fund for the Arts Grants for the 2026 fiscal year. The funding supports a range of renovation and expansion projects to support year-round arts programs across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMAC and our grantees are grateful to the Mississippi Legislature for prioritizing funding for the Building Fund for the Arts grant each year,\u201d said David Lewis<\/strong>, executive director of the commission<\/a>, a state agency. \u201cThe fund for this grant has a high impact on the arts communities throughout the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are excited to see these grant dollars put to good use through the investment in Mississippi\u2019s creative communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The Greenfield Farm writers retreat will include four studios for writers to live and work in a natural setting. The Mississippi Arts Commission has provided $500,000 to construct one of the studios at the retreat. Illustration courtesy Marlon Blackwell Architects<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The writer studios at Greenfield Farm will offer Mississippi writers a place to work uninterrupted on projects in a natural setting. The Mississippi Arts Commission has provided $500,000 to construct one of the studios at the retreat. Illustration courtesy Marlon Blackwell Architects<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
John T. Edge. Photo by Thomas Graning\/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Building for the Arts grant eclipses $5 million fundraising mark for project by Marvis Herring The Mississippi Arts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123462,"featured_media":155515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17687],"tags":[2369,26024,3179,33658,22271,25230,26577,1330,28880,5,2662,4,33657,33656,85],"class_list":["post-155513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-of-mississippi","tag-arkansas","tag-david-lewis","tag-fayetteville","tag-gathering-shed","tag-gertrude-c-ford-foundation","tag-greenfield-farm","tag-greenfield-farm-writers-residency","tag-john-t-edge","tag-marlon-blackwell-architects","tag-mississippi","tag-mississippi-arts-commission","tag-oxford","tag-the-mississippi-lab","tag-university-of-mississippi-research-foundation","tag-william-faulkner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Side-Shot-Trot.jpg?fit=1492%2C842&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155581,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155513\/revisions\/155581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}