The
Telfair Museum of Art, located in the historic district of
Savannah, Georgia, is the
South’s first public
art museum. Founded through the bequest of Mary Telfair (1791-1875), a prominent local citizen, the museum opened in 1886 in the Telfair family’s renovated Regency-style mansion, known as the
Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Today, the museum encompasses an extensive collection of over 4,500 American and European paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, housed in three buildings: the
Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (formerly the Telfair family home) and the
Owens-Thomas House, both National Historic Landmarks designed by British architect William Jay in the early nineteenth century; and the contemporary Jepson Center for the Arts, designed by
Moshe Safdie and completed in 2006.
The Telfair Academy and the Owens-Thomas House feature period rooms and collections of decorative arts. The Jepson Center for the Arts features galleries of African American art, Southern art, photography and works-on-paper, two galleries for traveling exhibitions, a community gallery, a children's gallery, and two outdoor sculpture terraces.
External links
Read More