Brett OrsayRowan Oak will host guests and performers alike to fundraise for the University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses at 6:30 p.m. Thursday during the Seventh Annual Harvest Supper.
Tickets for the event sold out, and almost 600 museum sponsors plan to attend.
“This time, for the first year, we actually sold out our tickets to sponsors, so we don’t have have any left to sell,” said Kate Wallace, University Museum membership, events and communication coordinator. “So most of our money this year is coming from sponsors.”
However, the Har doesn’t stop coming in after ticket purchases. Friends of the Museum, a volunteer and advocacy organization dedicated to the University Museum, is hoping to raise another $40,000 to $50,000 through the online silent auction.
“This year instead of a live auction, we are doing an online and silent auction,” Wallace said. “It is the first year we’ve done that. It will be with all local and regional artists.”
Artists celebrating Oxford’s history and auctioning off their pieces include Jonathan Kent Adams, an Oxford resident and Ole Miss alumnus; Ashleigh Coleman, a photographer whose work was exhibited at Ole Miss last spring; and John Haltom, the youngest member to be admitted to the Mississippi Craftsmen’s Guild.
“Harvest Supper was started with the idea that we celebrate the artists,” Wallace said.
The musical performers for this year’s event are the University of Mississippi Steel Drum Band and Young Valley, a Southern-style, rock ‘n’ roll band from Jackson. A&N Catering and Elizabeth Heiskell, who catered the 2017 Harvest Supper, will return to cater the event again this year.
The Harvest Supper fundraiser is the main supporter of the University Museum sites, including Rowan Oak and Bailey’s Woods Trails.
“The historic houses are all a part of the museum complex, so once we pay off the event and everything, the money will come back to the museum,” Wallace said.
The grounds to Rowan Oak will be open to guests at 6:30 p.m. to begin a night of celebration of the storied artists in Oxford’s history, along with the current thriving art scene.
