Image: Randy Hayes, “Greenfield #3, William Faulkner’s Farm,” 2026, oil on photograph on canvas, Rowan Oak, Oxford, Mississippi
Randy Hayes is presenting ‘The Faulkner Project: Evocations & Associations’ at Rowan Oak, the historic Oxford, Mississippi, home of writer William Faulkner. The exhibition was announced in a September 1, 2026, newsletter from the University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses, which includes Rowan Oak among its museum and historic-house sites.
The project draws on Hayes’s longstanding interest in Faulkner and his connection to Mississippi. In a statement accompanying the announcement, Hayes said that his interest in the writer began when he was a high-school student in Tupelo, Mississippi. “I was fascinated by both his life and his work, which continue to inspire my art,” he said.
Hayes added that Faulkner died in the same year he left Tupelo for college. “A lifetime later, I'm grateful for the opportunity to exhibit my art in his home,” the artist said. The statement frames the presentation as both an artistic response to Faulkner and a return to a literary landscape that has been part of Hayes’s personal history.
The newsletter illustrates the exhibition with ‘Greenfield #3, William Faulkner’s Farm, 2026’, an oil-on-photograph-on-canvas work. The image shows a house surrounded by grass and weeds, linking the project’s subject to the rural and architectural settings associated with Faulkner’s Mississippi. No further list of works or details about the installation are provided in the announcement.
Rowan Oak is described by the University of Mississippi as William Faulkner’s historic home and as an important part of Oxford’s literary history. The house is presented alongside the University Museum within the University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses program, which also organizes exhibitions, educational activities and public events.
The Hayes presentation appears in the same fall newsletter that announces a change in access to Rowan Oak. Beginning Tuesday, September 1, 2026, admission rose to $10.00 per person, with free entry remaining for children 12 and under, University of Mississippi students, faculty and staff, and UM Museum members; Rowan Oak says the increase supports the site’s preservation, maintenance and interpretation. The house is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 4pm and Sunday from 1pm to 4pm, and is closed on Mondays. The announcement does not give an opening or closing date for ‘The Faulkner Project: Evocations & Associations’, nor does it specify whether the exhibition includes works beyond the illustrated painting.
The newsletter separately lists other University Museum exhibitions and programs, including the exhibitions ‘Buie & Skipwith: Sisters, Artists, Collectors’, ‘Theora Hamblett’s Children’s Games’ and ‘Caribbean Art of the Lewisohn Collection’. Those projects are distinct from Hayes’s presentation at Rowan Oak.
