Telfair Museums Unveils Its Largest Ever Group Curated Exhibition with ‘9 to 5’ – Opening November 3

SAVANNAH, GA – OCTOBER 30, 2023 – Telfair Museums is slated to unveil its latest exhibition, ‘9 to 5’, on Nov. 3 at the Jepson Center, located at 207 W. York St, Savannah, GA 31401. This eclectic selection of objects from Telfair’s permanent collection is the largest group curated exhibition in the museum’s history and will be on display in the Steward South, Steward North, and Kane Galleries until Jan. 14, 2024.
Sixty unique pieces of work from the museum’s collection of over 8,000 objects were curated by Telfair staff, docents, and member affinity groups. The exhibition will showcase the wide range of perspectives within the museums’ organization and contribute insight into what makes a work of art compelling through the guest curators’ time in the galleries, interactions with visitors, or individual research.
Alongside works from renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Nick Cave, Betsy Cain, William Wegman, and Kathryn Armstrong, several new acquisitions will be on view for the first time, including James Rosenquist’s Space Dust, which was gifted by Telfair board chair Josh and his wife Kelley Keller in 2022.
“This exhibition was a collaborative effort to identify why art matters. Each participant provided a personal statement about why their work spoke to them, and we hope that our reflections will inspire visitors to consider the same,” said Erin Dunn, curator of modern and contemporary art.
Olivia Johnson, one of Telfair’s Tenenbaum Education Fellows, selected a work by Marie von Matthiessen (1944-2001), Becoming One For a Moment with the Live Oaks, 1997, a gelatin silver print. Von Matthiessen visited Savannah in the early 2000s, where she became inspired by the African heritage expressed through hairdos of local women.
“When I first saw Becoming One For a Moment with the Live Oaks, 1997 by Maria von Matthiessen (1944-2001), I was immediately drawn to the subject of the live oak trees. … This piece reminds me that we are nature, and how our lives are very much intertwined with every other living being on this planet,” Johnson said.