Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Awards Over $281,000 to 25 Local Recipients

The Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance awarded more than $281,000 in community matching grants to 25 recipients across 12 counties last Wednesday, with Lafayette County projects capturing a combined $42,500 of that total. The board approved the funding at its quarterly meeting held at the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Museum in Tupelo, closing out a competitive cycle that drew nearly 40 applications requesting over $400,000.

Lafayette County's two largest awards went to the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, each receiving $20,000. The Greenfield Farm Cultural Legacy Project will commission documentary photographs and portrait paintings of land once owned by William Faulkner, using public lectures to broaden awareness of the mule farm's history and the people whose labor shaped it. John T. Edge, the residency's developer, said the project will partner with Lafayette County artists Thad Lee and Jason Bouldin. "By commissioning documentary photographs and portrait paintings, amplified by public lectures, we aim to enhance and expand public knowledge of William Faulkner's onetime mule farm in rural Lafayette County," Edge said. "Greenfield Farm Writers Residency is honored to partner with the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area, and Lafayette County artists Thad Lee and Jason Bouldin, to do this work in service of Mississippi writers and Mississippi stories."

The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council's $20,000 will fund community screenings of "Cole: Bridge to Justice," a feature-length documentary about Donald R. Cole, one of the Ole Miss Eight expelled in 1970 for protesting racial injustice. The Magnolia Civic Center, through manager Emily Draffen, also secured $4,800 for a Summer Series of four free public performances in the William Faulkner Literary Garden adjacent to the museum, featuring dramatic readings, period music, poetry, dance and written living history scenes. The Mississippi Presenters Network received $1,250 for a Creative Cultural Business Toolbox developed in partnership with VISTA.

Beyond Lafayette County, Lee County pulled in more than $76,000 in grants. The Elvis Presley Birthplace received $20,000 to re-create Elvis' 1956 Homecoming Concert on Sept. 26, 2026, marking the 70th anniversary of the performance. The Northeast Mississippi Rockabilly Heritage Foundation received another $20,000 for the inaugural RockabillaQue Festival. In Columbus, Visit Columbus was awarded $20,000 toward restoration of the historic Tennessee Williams Home, while Visit Corinth received $20,000 for a community rebranding initiative and the City of Hernando was awarded $5,000 to support the heritage components of its "Dickens of a Christmas" Victorian-era holiday event.

The Alliance is also directing $120,000 in designated Special Projects during FY26, partnering with the Mississippi Main Street Association, Mississippi Heritage Trust, Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, and the Tennessee Williams Home and Welcome Center in Columbus.

"This year we received nearly 40 grant applications requesting over $400,000 and were glad to be able to fund many of them," said Mary Cates Williams, executive director of the Alliance. "We look forward to working with grantees on their projects."

The Community Grant Program, now in its 10th year since launching in 2016, supports projects that advance the heritage area's mission of promoting tourism, economic development and preservation of the region's influence on American music, literature, Civil War history and civil rights. The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area spans 19 full counties and parts of 11 others across north Mississippi, including Lafayette, Lee, Alcorn, Monroe and DeSoto counties.