Today in Georgia History features a short video about our patron for the arts- you can view it by clicking here.

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Image: Carl Ludwig Brandt; Mary Telfair, 1896; 89 3/4 x 64 1/4 inches; Oil on canvas

The ArtZeum Pre-K project is funded by the Telfair Academy Guild.

The New wcwm? Family Make

wcwm? focuses on developing problem-solving and critical thinking skills through imagination. Explore your creative side with inspiring activities utilizing up-cycled materials, found objects, and traditional art supplies. In addition to the wcwm? project kits, the studios provide water color and collage opportunities.

New to the open studio wcwm? program is monthly thematic Family Make: participants are assigned a theme and encouraged to make art from the most unexpected materials. January’s Make: Camera Obscura In conjunction with “Fresh Focus: Contemporary Photography from the Permanent Collection”

A Camera obscure is a camera without film, a precursor to the invention of photography, in use since the Victorian era. Easy to build and fun to personalize, it can function in most any form. The camera obscura will demystify the functions of a camera, while providing a fun artistic investigation of composition and light in the world around us.

In the gallery, the works in this exhibit embody investigations and wonder that comes naturally to kids. Some images document the beauty and fun of our surroundings while others seem to make inquiries into the nature of objects and place. We can use the often narrative elements of these works to encourage observation and verbalization. Use the suggested question on the next page to keep your kids talking.

In the Studio you will find step by step instructions to build your camera obscura.  These projects are designed to be problem solving exercises in creativity. So we are going to open our wcwm? closet, packed with up-cycled opportunity,  so that you discover your own make.  We encourage parents to build their own while assisting children. It’s good to exemplify and verbalize the habits you want to encourage.

Being creative is about the unexpected transformations.  We have an end goal but the fun part is how you get there. So have some open ended fun and  style your own personalized variation on the camera obscura.

Suggested Vocabulary

What is a photograph? A picture produced with camera: an image produced on light-sensitive film or array inside a camera.

Black and white is usually discussed in terms of value. Value is the relative lightness and darkness of the image or elements in the image.

Sepia toning is a specialized treatment to give a black-and-white photographic print a warmer often reddish brown tone.  Significant to the work in his exhibit are neutral colors, any color that has been grayed by mixing other colors with, and

Intense color is bright pure color.

Composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph

Focal Point focuses specifically on a point of interest

I feel as though I have been given the opportunity and rare privilege to pilot a magnificent aircraft on a fascinating journey. At the outset, while reviewing the pre-flight checklist and the magnitude of the responsibilities before me, I must admit there was a certain allure to the “autopilot” option. It was only the superior skills and dedication of the Telfair’s professional staff and the unbelievable talents and support of the Board of Trustees that encouraged me to resist that temptation and to lead with my heart and enthusiasm. Surrounded and supported by a broad array of passionate and devoted volunteers, the speed at which these eight months have flown by is simply breathtaking.

As we prepare to land, there is no need to gather your belongings or to place the “occupied” card in your seat. You may rest assured that your ongoing place with the Telfair is reserved. I am truly looking forward to sitting in the passenger section with you, as Lisa Grove takes all of us to new heights. Below, I have the privilege of sharing with you just a few highlights of the next leg of our upcoming journey together.

Leo Villareal is a pioneer in the use of LEDs and computer-driven imagery, known both for his light sculptures and architectural, site-specific works. This exhibition represents his first major traveling museum survey and, with its catalogue, explores how his work presents a new vision of art, using computer code and new technology as a medium for abstraction. We will also be using the work of this visionary pioneer to present a math and science curriculum to thousands of local area students.

Leo Villareal lends itself beautifully and will indeed become the centerpiece of Telfair Museums’ PULSE Art and Technology Festival, when it returns for its 2012 edition. This high-energy week of exhibitions, performances, lectures, workshops and events draws strongly from a younger audience and is always a time of great activity in and around the Telfair.

Also catapulting from the Villareal exhibition, the 2012 Telfair Ball has chosen Illume for its theme. The ever popular Ball will again include the Thursday night Silent Art Auction that was so well received and supported last year, as well as the return of the Telfair Bash, which was enjoyed by so many of the Telfair’s younger members.

A Native Son: Paintings by West Fraser will offer a soothing and familiar counterpoint to the abovementioned exhibitions and events. Despite coming of age at a time when modernism and abstraction has achieved a firm hold on the prevailing modes of art instruction throughout the country, West Fraser has remained a traditionalist, earning a place among the region’s leading practitioners of traditional realism.

The Artful Table: Celebrations with Inspirations by Barry Dixon will be TAG’s 2012 edition of this popular spring fundraising event. One of the nation’s most sought after designers, Dixon’s work is featured frequently in Veranda, Southern Accents, and House Beautiful, as well as in his two books. Spring will also see the opening of Juliette Gordon Low and her Contemporaries in Savannah’s Art Scene, where as part of the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Girl Scouts, Telfair Museums will take a look at Low’s significant interest in the arts, including her leading role in the Savannah art scene in the early 20th century as a founding member of the Savannah Art Club. Slavery by Another Name: Paintings and Assemblages by Robert Clairborne Morris will continue the dialogue begun by the Telfair’s ground-breaking symposium on urban slavery this past year. Inspired by author Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, the exhibition showcases a collection of mixed media works created to “awaken complex emotions and promote reconciliation.”

Awarm and enthusiastic welcome to Lisa Grove. And to all of you, once again my deepest gratitude and appreciation for your tremendous support and the opportunity you have given me. I look forward to continuing our journey together.

- Cathy Solomons

Interim Director

The humanist movement in the Renaissance made the individual the center of the universe, and for all that greatness there is an increase danger in failure. Scholastic education deepens this fear, by defining accumulated mistakes as a progression toward failure. This fear often stops our creative adventures before they start.

On Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays between 10-2pm, we are opening the Melaver studio for creative play. There is no right or wrong, just a simple question,” what can we make?”  You don’t have to be an artist; you just have to enjoy the challenge to make something.

In Greek culture the word for genius was something that existed outside of oneself; in fact, everything and each location had a genius. So in way you had to discover the genius of a place or thing. We can’t guarantee the studio’s genius will always be present, but it usually shows up once you start having some fun.

In our “wcwm?” (what can we make?) project, we provide a creative thinking challenge that encourages kids and adults to return to a kind of creative play, and idea of making simply for the sake of making. Participants are given a container of random up-cycled materials and challenge to make something or, as I like to call it, a Nothing-Something from only the provided materials.

If you like the idea of making simply because we can, then you can add to your tool belt and improve your skill set with some of our DIY suggested tour and projects for kids and adults. http://telfair.org/learn/classes/overview/

We have added basic recommended lesson plans with links to the information you’ll  need to do it yourself, your way and on your schedule. We have included talking points and project instruction with examples. We are giving you all the basics so that you can lead your child through an exhibit with our suggested conversation topics and make your own project based off the materials we have available for you in our open Studio. Studio is open every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10-2pm .

You can find the lessons at Telfair.org/learn or right here on the Ed Departments Blog “From220B”

Kip Bradley