Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the National Endowment of the Arts, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and more than 1,500 museums across America to offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day, May 28, through Labor Day, September 3, 2012.

The complete list of participating museums is available at www.arts.gov/bluestarmuseums.

Thank you for extending such a warm welcome to my family and me during this period of transition. Over the past four months, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting so many amazing people who make up the Telfair family. I’ve listened as you have shared personal stories about why the museum matters to you, and its relevance to our community. I have witnessed the excitement of great programs and events, including the Telfair Ball and the amazing PULSE: Art + Technology Festival. I have been deeply touched by the level of commitment and passion that so many of you demonstrate for the museum.

The Telfair is truly an inspiring place, and I look forward to building on this history and passion as we chart a course for our next 125 years. I invite you to attend Telfair Museums Annual Meeting and reception on May 24 at 6 pm as we celebrate the accomplishments of the past year and set our sights on the exciting years ahead.

We have a lot of exciting exhibitions and programs in store for you this summer, so I hope you will plan to visit us often! At the Telfair Academy, we will present an exhibition of permanent collection works by Kahlil Gibran, followed by a show of Low Country inspired works by local artist Preston Russell. At the Jepson Center, we will present an incredible show of works by Reverend Howard Finster, one of America’s most widely known and prolific self-taught artists. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Studio Glass Movement, we will present a show more than thirty glass objects from the museum’s permanent collection as well as incredible glass pieces from local collectors.

We are pleased to unveil new additions to our ArtZeum on April 19. These new additions, which offer activities for ages 3–5, were made possible through the support of TAG. We also are pleased to offer a great lineup of summer camps for children of all ages. Remember, the Telfair is a great place to bring your children and grandchildren on a hot summer’s day!

In closing, I would like to say a few words of thanks. First, I would like to thank each of you, our members, for your ongoing support. It is thanks to your generous support that we are able to offer world-class exhibitions and education programs that bring the arts to thousands each year. I would also like to thank the Telfair’s Board of Directors for offering me this opportunity to lead such an amazing institution in this wonderful community.

And finally, I would like to thank Cathy Solomons for her dedication and hard work as Interim Director. I can’t imagine better footsteps to follow in than Cathy’s—she is such a genuine and giving person whose passion for the Telfair is evident in everything she does. We all owe Cathy a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you, Cathy.

I’m delighted to be part of the Telfair family and the Savannah community, and I look forward to seeing you at Telfair Museums soon!

Lisa Grove

Director/CEO

Image via South Magazine

By Kip Bradley, Studio Programs Manager at Telfair Museums

It’s been about a decade since I painted a plein air landscape. This weekend I had the opportunity to do so during our Ossabaw Island painting workshop with West Fraser.

This one day workshop offered me something that deeply contrasted what has become my everyday life. It allowed me a nostalgic return to the romantic ideals I grew up with. Living not far from Walden Pond, my education was steeped in transcendentalist values. This short trip and momentary but intense focus on art renewed and rejuvenated my creative energy. Landscape painting was my first love as an artist. The return to these ideals was quick and powerful.

The fifteen artists registered for the workshop met at Delegal Creek Marina at 6am. Within moments we were immediately surrounded by cranes and a large group of dolphins–technology and the rush of time were far behind us. Arriving at Ossabaw, we were greeted by Mark and Elizabeth DeBose from the Ossabaw Island Foundation. They introduce us to the island history while West quickly set up his supplies. He talked all of us through a quick painting of the islands coastline and left us with sage advice,

“We all have a deep understanding of relationship in nature, you may not have words for those relationships, but you can recognize them.”

West encouraged everyone to trust and relay on those “known or unconsciously known relationships.”

According to Emerson, Thoreau had the greatest awareness of to the relationship between natural elements, and spent his days running through the forest and fields documenting in detailed journals every natural occurrence and the contributing elements. I have always admired how he painted those observations so beautifully in his writings.

We all ventured off in our own directions and found spots to create morning paintings. Some individuals were more drawn to the marsh and others to the variety of romantically overgrown and decaying house and shed structures. I enjoyed the perspective and light near three tabby houses, and chose to paint there. A sweet path wrapped around the third house disappearing into wall of dense dark forest with warm tantalizing splotches of light, highlighting the contrasting surface hues of each construction.

It was a wonderful day and the morning light was magical. West was swift to move around to each individual and provide assistance in composition and ensured all were off to a good start.

Around noon we broke for lunch and West left for a visit with Sandy West, the 99-year-old islands sole inhabitant and owner. The rest of us prepared to explore the inland middle village, where in the 70’s, a program was held there called the Genesis Project–a project with the goal of to returning to nature and living off the land.

While on our island excursion my painting took a nose dive into a pile of dirt. It could have been the beautiful but nosy Sicilian donkeys that hung out with me all day– or maybe it was that perfect slight breeze. I made an effort to recover by accepting the newly acquired texture, adding more paint, and re-building lost elements into the painting. The morning light had been exciting with dramatic hue shifts and strong shadows. The following rescue effort was difficult in the harsh afternoon light.

The final painting was far from perfect. In fact it was perhaps a little gritty and pasty. It was an appropriate full-fledged re-introduction to the traditions of plein air painting, natural hazards, bugs, changing light, and a little sun burn.

Thoreau said, “It is one thing to paint something as to make it beautiful. It is an entirely different and more glorious a thing to paint the very air we breathe.”

This trip to Ossabaw, I believe, left all of us involved with a greater sense of “ the air we breathe”. It could have been the history of the island, the pristine Georgia coastal nature, or the opportunity to work with a great artist and awesome individual such as West Fraser, who so deeply captures the regional landscape and culture. Whether or not I made a technically good painting, it is the experience that it documents. I am happy with my painting as is, it is the air I breathed this day.

West had truly great advice to share with the fifteen of us–that in taking the time to observe and appreciate the “deep understanding of the relationship in nature” through painting we can find and achieve a greater deeper significances to things, or just have fun making paintings.

Many of the artists have agreed to exhibit their creations in the Jepson Center’s Mary Lane Morrison Community gallery, August 27-September 24, 2012. Several of the participants have also suggested that they will donate their paintings to Ossabaw Island’s pig roast fundraising event.

Information
Exhibition Dates October 1st – November 18th
Deadline for submissions is September 1st
Participants must live in 100 mile radius of Savannah
Please send following information to Kip Bradley at Bradleyk@telfair.org
Name
Address
Phone number
Brief statement include bio information
Project size dimensions
3 images of project
Juror
Jake Hodesh is the Executive Director of the Creative Coast. The Creative Coast is a non-profit organization supported by The City of Savannah and SEDA. We exist to nurture the members of our community engaged in creative or innovative endeavors and to cultivate an environment in which they can thrive.

No better place to meet-cute than the ArtZeum!

Education was a critical component of Mary Telfair’s vision for the Telfair Academy. According to her wishes, since established in 1883, the Telfair Academy of Art and Sciences has provided cultural education opportunities to the community of Savannah.  Over the course of 130 years many great artist, teachers, curators, and directors have recognized and maintained the importance of this service to the greater community. The educational programs offered today; studio classes, lectures, outreach efforts, family days, 4^th grade program, and weeks of free admission, are efforts that always been present at the Telfair museums in some form. This past year artist working with the museums completed art projects with nearly 10,000 children and adults.

In the Teachers of the Telfair Exhibit  we have chosen to feature the individuals that have worked to bridge the museum’s exhibits with the Savannah community; by carrying bags of art supplies out to the parks and playgrounds of Savannah, eagerly volunteering time in the museum’s educational department, and endearingly hosted classes and workshops in the Jepson center Studio’s.

These artists are part of the museum history and have continued learning tradition that began with the museum’s first curator, Carl Brandt, in 1883. A highly accomplished artist, Mr. Brandt offered the first painting classes on the third floor of the Telfair Academy.

Some artists represented in this exhibition have long established careers as artist, while others are young up-in-coming, and some have only just begun their artistic development.  Each year new artists join the legacy of education at the museum. This exhibition provides a great opportunity to honor the recent teaching artists that have made a commitment to cultural education.

The exhibition will be on view until Monday June 11^th.

Below are some great photos of  Addison and Elise, Education Department Interns  installing the exhibition.