Savannah Museums to Atlanta

TELFAIR MUSEUM & JASPER CENTER



Telfair Musuem entrance



This morning, A. Paul & I visited two museums in Savannah, GA- the Jepson Center and the Telfair Museum of Art, both are operated under the umbrella of the Telfair Museums.  

We began at the  Jepson Center, a 64,000 square foot modern art museum and educational facility, the first expansion for the Telfair Museum in 125 years.  The modern architectural space stands in contrast to the stately, historic buildings surrounding Oglethorpe square.  Hanging from the interior ceiling is a suspended installation "Birds in Flight" by local artist Matt Hebermehl, adding a surreal illusion within the enormous volume of light of the entry corridor.  Upstairs is a state of the art interactive children's museum.  In an adjacent room, we caught up with two recent SCAD graduates, Marie Le Pichon, an interactive game designer, and Lynne Lincoln, a theater and mechanics designer.  The two were repairing an other worldly interactive mechanical game which uses a video screen, projector and three mechanical elements encased in acrylic to propel a video graphic ship into space.  Marie & Lynne gave us a hands on demonstration of the game designed by a SCAD professor and built by Lynn Lincoln.  With Kerry at the helm guiding the ship into outerspace, Lynne and Marie provided the gas and forward propulsion. Cautiously and with quite a few laughs, we successfully guided our ship into space,. Thanks Lynne & Marie, we had a blast with the game. It was a wonderful example of  interactive technological designwork.

Lynne Lincoln (L) & Marie La Pichon (R)

In the next salon was a traveling exhibit, "Modern Masters",  from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  The exhibition highlights and features works of  action painters or abstract expressionists of the 20th century in three thematic venues- "Grand Gestures" which highlights works of artists such as Franz Kline, Hans Hofmann, and Sam Francis, "Optics & Orders" featuring works based on Josef Albers proportion and balance of color theories, and "New Images of Man" works that explore the spatial relationship of man and the universe. Very evident to us is the strong commitment to education at the Jepson, as there were no fewer than 3 groups of children being educated about the arts and the workrooms were in use during our visit. You can visit the Jepson Center via its website  http://telfair.org/jepson/



"Fermented Soil" Hans Hofman, 1965
Grand Gestures exhibit

Across the square, the Telfair Museum houses a permanent collection of works from America, Europe and Asia spanning the 18th to 20th centuries.  The collection includes works by Robert Henri, Childe Hassam, Charles Hawthorne, and William Merritt Chase and is housed in a neoclassical Regency styled mansion of the former Telfair family.  Inside, two period rooms have been kept intact and are viewable.  Marble stairs guide you to two levels of art and sculpture. You can access the information on the Telfair Museum at the same website as above.  Follow the links at the top right of the website to take you to the appropriate museum.  The third link for the Owens-Thomas House, located a short distance from the Jepson and Telfair, is also associated with the Telfair Museums.  It is an exceptional tour of English Regency architecture that requires a mandatory 40 minute tour to view.  Casual walk throughs are not allowed so you should keep this in mind if you are planning a trip to this location. You can purchase single entries into each museum or one admission ticket for all three venues at a discounted rate. We know as we leave this area,  that we are missing a great deal of the historic museums that capture the revolutionary history of the South but will have to reserve these to a future tour in order to keep within our current art tour timetable.

DRIVE TO ATLANTA

We said good bye to Savannah and headed to her sister city, Atlanta.  Our arrival into the city was a stark contrast to the oak lined squares we left behind.  A must stop for A. Paul upon our late arrival into Atlanta was to the Huff Harrington Gallery  where co-owner Ann Huff and Linda Mohan stayed late to give us an introduction to their artists and gallery. The gallery offers a diverse collection of 20 American & European artists' works housed in an inviting home- like setting.  You can visit the Huff Harrington Gallery artists' works  at http://www.huffharrington.com/  Thank you Ann and Linda for your enthusiastic welcome and information.  We hope you will come visit us in Provincetown when you are in our area.

L to R: Ann Huff, Kerry Filiberto, &
Linda Mohan at Huff Harrington Gallery

Our stop in Atlanta is a short one and we know that we will be missing some substantial venues of art here.  However, we will squeeze a few more galleries into the early day then we are off to Nashville, Memphis, and onto New Orleans by the weekend.

We hope that you will stay with us as we continue our art tour across America.