The 33rd annual Natchez Antiques Forum, featuring museum curators from across the country, kicks off next weekend at the Natchez Grand Hotel.

Proceeds will benefit the Longwood home at Natchez, a National Historic Landmark and the largest octagonal house in America.

Presented by the Pilgrimage Garden Club and the Pilgrimage Historical Association, the forum, called The American Arts: Fact and Fiction, will feature discussions, a viewing of 19th and 20th century Natchez photographs; a tour of three antebellum homes; lunch at the renowned Carriage House Restaurant at Stanton Hall; and antique shopping.

The forum encourages preservation of historic homes in Natchez and throughout the Deep South.

The featured speaker will be Wendell Garrett, editor-at-large of The Magazine Antiques and a renowned expert in American history, decorative arts and furniture. He has been an appraiser on the PBS program “Antiques Roadshow.”