University of Mississippi students seized the opportunity to sell and showcase their artwork at the 2026 Double Decker Arts Festival on the Square in Oxford, Miss., on Saturday, April 25.
Students are an integral part of the Oxford community. With its combination of in-state and out-of-state students, the university has a wide range of artistic talent.
Maggie Hazlewood, a sophomore communication sciences and disorders major from Oxford, is an intern at SJ Ceramic Co., a jewelry and ceramic pottery store that had a booth at the festival.
“I love how Double Decker promotes all of our small businesses in Oxford,” Hazlewood said. “It’s one of the biggest weekends of the year for local artists.”
Promotion is important for student artists. The festival’s scale provides heavy foot traffic, and attendees slow down to browse various booths. Nicolas Neese, a senior art major from Madison, Miss., sold glass art at his booth.
“Participating in Double Decker has really promoted my business and gotten people interested in what I have to offer,” Neese said. “It’s been a dream come true.”
The student population has built a community around the arts, promoting volunteer opportunities to support their peers. Ruth Hogue, a senior art major from Oxford, volunteered at the Pixel Press tent to support student printmaking and photography. Pixel Press is a student organization that allows students to market and advertise their creative works.
“It’s important that printmaking and art isn’t just insular to the university — it needs to get out into the community,” Hogue said. “Oxford has a great arts community, and Double Decker gets people to see what the arts department at Ole Miss does. We have a very well-funded, but underrepresented, art program, and I think it’s good that it’s getting the word out.”
A wide range of art was showcased at the festival. Emilee McDonald, a sophomore allied health studies major from Hurley, Miss., volunteered to paint faces in the kids’ section.
“I’ve been painting faces at a bunch of different festivals because I enjoy hanging out with kids and celebrating the arts,” McDonald said. “Parents came up to me earlier saying that their kids were so excited to get their face painted, and that they waited all day for it, which is so cute.”
For many, selling art is less about profit and more about expressing different meanings. This was the case for James Douglas, an art major from Laurel, Miss., who sold his pottery at the Mud Daubers ceramics club tent.
“I’m here today because I’m trying to get people to slow down through my pottery,” Douglas said. “I have this idea in my head that visual and tactile engagement with this work will get people to slow down, and through that find a sense of stillness, and through that, a sense of peace.”
A large art festival like Double Decker allows vendors and attendees to connect in ways that would not have been possible otherwise. Douglas was grateful for the opportunity to sell his work to a big crowd.
“Being out here helps me gauge what is working and what is not, especially for the effect of getting people to be more present in their own life,” Douglas said. “I’ve enjoyed talking to people who are going to bring my work home, and it’s going to be a part of their life where it can be individual and not just another thing on the shelf.”
