Jepson Center
- Hours
- Open 10am–5pm today
- View Hours
The Jepson Center links the history preserved by the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters and Telfair Academy to the future of art and architecture. The strikingly modern building, opened in 2006, is filled with art, activities, and educational opportunities that will encourage learning for generations to come.
- Telfair Academy: 1 min
- Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters: 7 mins
Jepson Center: History and Harmony
After a century of collecting, exhibiting, and educating Savannah and its visitors about art, history, and architecture, Telfair Museums’ Director and Board of Trustees identified the need for a new, larger facility. Their primary objectives were to increase the capacity for traveling exhibitions, continue an emphasis on education and community involvement, and increase archival storage for a growing collection. The museums’ Board of Directors envisioned a building representative of its time but also open, welcoming, and inviting. They also understood that, in a National Historic Landmark District, it would be challenging to express these ideals in architecture.
Five internationally recognized architectural firms presented their ideas to the trustees in 1998. The trustees unanimously chose Moshe Safdie and Associates. Safdie offered an outstanding international track record of responsible, compelling designs in historic settings, and he excited them with his passion about the possibilities of the new project. Safdie also offered a clear and stimulating vision of a building that would harmonize with its surroundings and welcome the community.
What nobody envisioned was a two-year controversy surrounding the proposed project as the design team made its case before Savannah’s Historic Review Board. Only the passion and dedication of countless individuals enabled the grand vision for the Jepson Center to endure, providing Savannah with a truly iconic structure that, in the words of Safdie, is “vital, contemporary, appropriate to the expression of art to come … and a building you cannot conceive of anywhere else but Savannah.”
Sensitive Contacts: Interactive Art by Scenocosme
Exhibitions
#art912, N/um
Anything Goes: Contemporary Art and Materials
Photography’s Last Century: The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection
Bold Expressions: The Collection of Lorlee and Arnold Tenenbaum
Telfair Children’s Art Museum – Opening at the Jepson Center in 2023
The Telfair Children’s Art Museum will address a significant need identified through our strategic planning process to provide an updated museum experience that offers our members, visitors, and our local school communities transformative learning experiences for all ages and styles of learning using modern technologies, immersive environments, and low-tech and hands-on activities. The new Children’s Art Museum will also serve as a major attraction for the thousands of visitors to our area, and for local families and school children seeking educational experiences that address the needs and expectations of contemporary audiences.
#art912
#art912 is an initiative dedicated to raising the visibility and promoting the vitality of artists living and working in Savannah through exhibition opportunities, public programs, and outreach.
Exhibition Opportunities
Boxed In/Break Out Artists are invited to submit proposals for a public art installation in the windows of the Jepson Center that face Barnard Street.
#art912 on Social Media
Telfair Museums encourages anyone who is making art, looking at art, or talking about art in Savannah to use #art912 on any social media platform to talk about art or artists in Savannah.
Upcoming #art912 Events
