High Society

A posh dinner experience in a private home raises funds for the University of Mississippi Museum.

Written by Eugene Stockstill | Photographed by Rebekah Clayton, At Your Best Photo

Look up the word posh in the dictionary, and you just might find a picture of the Taylor, Mississippi, home of Lucius Lamar and Kerry Hamilton. Back in May, Lamar and Hamilton hosted what very well may have been one of the biggest art events of 2025 in Lafayette County.

The Friends of the University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses created a dinner event that was auctioned at last fall’s Harvest Supper to raise money for the museum. It was the first time several interactive experiences were auctioned as a fundraiser.

“Our goal was to make the events art-related and (to offer) meals created and presented by known chefs at homes of museum patrons,” said Lamar, a well-known local painter, whose mother was the first woman to be elected mayor of Oxford.

Think of the salons of old Europe, where artists, writers, intellectuals and other dignitaries congregated, feasted, exchanged ideas and shared creative expressions, and you’ll have an even better idea of the vision.

Voilà! A springtime dinner extravaganza was born. The person who won the dinner experience, which was attended by about two dozen people, asked to remain anonymous but agreed to share photos from the event here.

The gathering was catered by Katie Adams and Rob Mistry, partners at Gautreau’s in New Orleans, a restaurant named for a famous socialite who was the subject of numerous portraits, including the once-scandalous “Madame X,” in which she painted her body a death-white hue. Ellen and Eason Leake, members of the museum’s board, introduced Adams and Mistry to supporters of the museum after the Leakes had enjoyed a meal at Gautreau’s.

Adams worked as a chef at City Grocery and Snackbar before she moved to the Crescent City.

“They graciously created and served the amazing multicourse dinner that was paired with curated, unique and rare wines (from) a museum patron,” Lamar said. (See menu at right.)

The event was something of a who’s who in the art world. DJ Loft provided a playlist for the gathering. Photographers Langdon Clay and Maude Schuyler Clay described their work with Marshall McKinney, the founding director of Garden & Gun magazine. Mississippi writer Michael Farris Smith read from and discussed some of his latest work. Actress and filmmaker McGhee Monteith spoke, too. Modern Renaissance man Jared Spears analyzed a sculpture that Lamar and Hamilton commissioned from him. Fine art portrait photographer Allison Rodgers was also in attendance.

The house itself tells quite a story, as well. Lamar and Hamilton envisioned it, and noted architect Edye Conkerton designed it. Built in 2020, the modern farmhouse with a variety of roof pitches and windows was “designed to maximize light,” Lamar said.

With four bedrooms, a guesthouse/artist studio and a foyer gallery topped with a glass pyramid, the 4,000-square-foot residence show-cases a dizzying array of art. (See sidebar below.)

Lamar, who is currently working on an art show for Southside Gallery this October and has donated his art to Harvest Supper, gushed over the success of the event.

“More than a supper,” Lamar said. “It became a hymn to abundance, to belonging, to the way beauty — on canvas, on the plate, in community — can be shared beneath the wide Mississippi sky.”

This year’s Harvest Supper takes place Oct. 30 on the grounds of Rowan Oak. A silent art auction will feature original art from more than 20 Mississippi-based artists, including one by Lamar, plus three art-culinary experiences, including a VIP trip to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, via private jet for eight people. Bidding on items will begin 10 days before the event. Learn more about the dinner and the auction at harvestsupper.org.

Art for Art’s Sake

Lucius Lamar and Kerry Hamilton have spent the greater part of their lives collecting art, and their contemporary home in bucolic Taylor proves it.

Nothing, it seems, is off-limits in the art world of Lucius Lamar and Kerry Hamilton. “Our walls hold a wide range of art genres,” Lamar said.

They’ve got modernist and pop art by Picasso, Harring and Warhol, including his famous soup can piece. There is work by Takashi Murakami, a contemporary Japanese artist, and pieces by that quintessential American son, Norman Rockwell.

Their collection of photography includes several Mississippi-related pieces, including “Colonel” by J.R. Cofield, the portrait photographer of William Faulkner, as well as a portrait of “Faulkner’s Mule,” which was a gift from Hamilton’s father.

They also have a collection of Southern folk art by self-taught artists, many creations made with non-traditional materials, and an unusual piece by Jere Allen, professor emeritus at Ole Miss, called “The Dressing of the Deer Carcass” (oil on canvas).

One of the more striking pieces is “Gamin,” a bronze bust of a young African American boy by Augusta Savage of the Harlem Renaissance, which Lamar called his favorite, a gift from his mother, Patricia Lamar, the first woman to become mayor of Oxford.