Mississippi Arts Commission Funds Writer Studio at Greenfield Farm

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

"With this grant, our fundraising tops the $5 million mark," said John T. Edge, residency developer and director of The Mississippi Lab. "That support has come from University of Mississippi alumni, good readers from across the state, family trusts, corporate foundations and the state of Mississippi.

"Design for the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, recently completed, includes six new buildings and two renovated buildings."

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. Designs for the writer studios by the award-winning firm Marlon Blackwell Architects, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, reimagine vernacular building idioms, such as the dogtrot and the shotgun, as modern spaces where writers will work.

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

Seventeen Mississippi organizations 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.

"MAC and our grantees are grateful to the Mississippi Legislature for prioritizing funding for the Building Fund for the Arts grant each year," said David Lewis, executive director of the commission, a state agency. "The fund for this grant has a high impact on the arts communities throughout the state.

"We are excited to see these grant dollars put to good use through the investment in Mississippi's creative communities."

Top: 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