ART CITY FOCUS: SAVANNAH, GEORGIA By Kelly Carper
Georgia CIT Y FOCUS
The creative culture in Savannah, Georgia, is breathing new life into the Old South.
Founded in 1733, Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia and a designated National Historic Landmark for its unique layout around central city squares. These “green spaces,” shaded by towering oak trees and surrounded by 19th-century architecture, give Savannah a soothing aesthetic unlike anywhere else in the South—or even the country. Trolley cars and horse-drawn carriages wind through the city, which is also refreshingly walkable, as drivers educate visitors on Savannah’s significant history, pointing out sites such as the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters, Telfair Academy or the iconic fountain at Forsyth Park.
But the “Hostess City” holds more than quaint cobblestone streets and hospitable folks. In Savannah, there is a new South to discover—one where cuttingedge art and modern innovation mingle with the city’s antebellum architecture and classic charm. Behind Savannah’s quintessential Southern façade is a burgeoning contemporary art scene, discoverable through local artist studios, off-the-path galleries and the city’s newest museums.
Playing the largest role in this cultural renaissance is the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), which propels Savannah forward while remaining deeply connected to the city’s historic roots. More than an art school, SCAD is the “university for creative careers,” offering areas of study that range from immersive reality and motion media to fashion design, film, painting—and everything in between. But you don’t have to be a student to benefit from SCAD’s programming, which draws some of the nation’s top artists and arts professionals to the city for events, panels, workshops and presentations.
The university’s nontraditional campus is spread throughout Savannah, fully integrated with the
city’s daily life as well as its architectural history. Restoration and adaptive reuse is high priority for founding president Paula Wallace, who has led SCAD in rehabilitating over 70 historic structures in the city, contributing heavily to Savannah’s unique marrying of old charm and innovative design. These efforts, which extend to campuses in Atlanta, Hong Kong and Lacoste, France, have landed the university awards from the American Institute of Architects, National Trust for Historic Preservation, UNESCO and more. “SCAD built Savannah’s globally renowned arts community from the ground up,” says Wallace.
The SCAD Museum of Art is the picture of Savannah’s classic-contemporary blend. “Visitors come to Savannah from all over the world just to witness the design marvel that is the SCAD Museum of Art, located within one of the oldest extant railroad depots,” says Wallace. The 1853 structure was in ruins when it was acquired by the university in 2010. The “bones” of the building, including its original gray brick exterior and barrel-vaulted archways, were preserved and integrated with modern features including an 86-foot-tall glass atrium gracefully rising above Savannah’s skyline.
Monica Cook’s Liquid Vessels, on view at the museum through May 19 as part of its signature deFINE ART exhibition series, features the New York artist’s complex sculptural assemblages. Cook’s work is also available for purchase through SCAD
Art Sales, an art consultancy and valuable collector resource for navigating the worldwide network of SCAD alumni, faculty and exceptional student artists. “SCAD Art Sales provides collection curation for commercial clients, and even supplies art for scenic and production designs for Georgia’s film industry—the most prolific in the country,” says Wallace. “The thousands of artists represented by SCAD Art Sales live around the world and represent every medium and style of studio art.”
With showrooms at the Gutstein Gallery and Alexander Hall and a network of over 45,000 artists and designers, SCAD Art Sales is a must-visit for the discerning art collector.
Other Savannah museums of note are Telfair Academy, the first public art museum in the South, and Jepson Center for the Arts, which opened in 2006 as the Telfair’s cutting-edge counterpart devoted to contemporary art and traveling exhibitions. Explore the work of modern masters alongside that of Savannah’s rising stars, including Katherine Sandoz’s sculptural mobile in the atrium and her fluid floral mural on the second level. More of Sandoz’s work can be found across town at Laney Contemporary Fine Art, Savannah’s premier destination for contemporary art by leading artists of the area such as Betsy Cain, Will Penny, Marcus Kenney and Pamela Wiley. The gallery’s unique location has an outdoor lawn for hosting receptions and a wall-to-ceiling mirror room, currently featuring a cyclorama of Sandoz’s beautifully washed botanicals.
Gallery director Susan Laney has over 20 years of experience as a dealer and independent curator. She has organized exhibitions at the SCAD Museum of Art
and manages the estate of Jack Leigh, celebrated photographer of the American South. Laney’s gallery is dedicated to contemporary voices of the South, particularly Savannah’s. “Savannah has been a historic destination for decades,” says Laney, “but it’s also really important to know how many artists are making Savannah home. There’s a wealth of talent here, which is why I opened the gallery.”
Back in the Historic District, another influential Savannah gallery owner is Tiffani Taylor of Tiffani Taylor Gallery. SCAD alumna, contemporary painter, ceramicist and Savannah Art Walk (SAW) founder are just a few roles Taylor plays in the local art community. The entrepreneurial artist splits her time between Savannah and France, where she mentors SCAD’s Lacoste student artists. Taylor’s radiant paintings, which reveal nature’s divinity through rich texture and freeflowing expression, have been collected by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and former Vogue editor André Leon Talley.
Taylor’s organized Art Walk occurs the second Saturday of every month as a must-do for visitors interested in personally connecting with Savannah artists. Beginning with complimentary cocktails and artist presentations at the Hyatt Hotel, the tour includes 25 galleries within a 1-mile radius before culminating for wine pouring, a patronage raffle and an emerging artist exhibit.
“My goal with SAW is to make Savannah the premier arts destination in the United States,” Taylor boldly states. “It’s exciting to be an artist and gallery owner here because of the magic and beauty of Savannah; it attracts an incredible amount of visitors.”
Notable stops on the Savannah Art Walk include City Market Art Center, featuring two levels of artist studios and
galleries, and Kobo Gallery, a quality co-op with work by local and regional artists. In the Downtown Design District you’ll find Roots Up Gallery, a stand out in Savannah’s art scene in its focus on Southern folk and outsider art. Owned by Leslie Lovell, Roots Up celebrates its fifth anniversary on May 1 with the exhibition In the Moment, featuring the nationally exhibited, untamed animal portraits of Helen Durant. Lovell’s gallery offers a true, flavorful taste of the South from its most honest artistic voices; its roster includes legacy folk artists of the region plus contemporary artists working in similarly soulful styles. Locals of note include Lisa D. Watson for her industrial reclaimed wall sculptures, and Savannah’s ubiquitous Panhandle Slim for his quotable pop-culture murals.
The Savannah arts experience is not complete without a visit to the up-andcoming Starland District, where you’ll find yet-to-be-discovered artists working at Sulfur Studios, hanging out in curated coffee shops or shopping at Starlandia Art Supply. This emerging area is constantly evolving but consistently arts-oriented, partially due to the inertia of its First Friday Art March, originally organized by Starlandia owner Clinton Edminster. An active arts community member, Edminster predicts Savannah’s creative heart will gravitate south as the Starland District continues to develop. His vision of the national arts conversation is similar, with artists in the South having an increasingly prevalent voice.
“A lot of the issues our country is grappling with right now have to do with Southern history,” says Edminster. “But the South is this burgeoning, growing, changing place. There is a new South here—and art is the carrier that will help everybody understand that.”