"He who seeks truth shall find beauty. He who seeks beauty shall find vanity. He who seeks order shall find gratification. He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed. He who considers himself the servant of his fellow beings shall find the joy of self-expression. He who seeks self-expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance."

—Moshe Safdie

The Jepson Center for the Arts on Telfair Square

The Jepson Center for the Arts, built on Telfair Square in 2005, was designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie. "Architecture should be rooted in the past, and yet be part of our own time and forward-looking," was Safdie's understanding of the guiding principle for this vital commission in Savannah.

The Jepson Center was named to honor Alice A. and Robert S. Jepson, Jr., who had only arrived in Savannah in 1989, yet immediately made an enduring cultural contribution to the city.

The Jepson Center is the newest part of the oldest public art museum in the American South. The Telfair Museums consist of three unique and distinct buildings located in Savannah.

The first part of the Telfair Museums is named Telfair Academy and constructed in 1819 on the former site of the Georgia Colonial Government House that served as the official residence of Royal Governor James Wright. (Savannah’s Wright Square is named for him.) The mansion sits only a stone's throw away from the Jepson Center for the Arts on Telfair Square. 

In 1883, Savannah city leaders renamed this square — originally named St. James Square — to honor the philanthropic Telfair Family for its essential contributions to the city and the State of Georgia.

The mansion was designed in a neoclassical Regency style by architectural virtuoso William Jay for Alexander Telfair, the fourth son of Revolutionary War hero and early Georgia Governor Edward Telfair. It became the home for Mary Telfair (see PFS-34), the last family member to bear the Telfair name. In her Will, Mary Telfair left her home to the Georgia Historical Society to establish a public art museum.

The second part of the Telfair Museums was another substantial Savannah mansion also designed by William Jay in 1819: The Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters (see PFS-13), located a mere five-minute walk from the Jepson Center. 

The Owens-Thomas House, together with its adjacent gardens, carriage house, and slave quarters, offers museum visitors the unique experience of exploring the often forgotten but peculiar living arrangements between enslaved peoples and the wealthy people who kept them in bondage.

Historically, slavery was chiefly associated with rural plantations. But urban slavery was an economically indispensable institution supporting the slave-based economy in antebellum Southern cities. The Owens-Thomas House section of the Telfair Museums brings this complex reality to light. It offers the visitor a greater understanding of the struggles faced by enslaved Blacks living in the city of Savannah.

The Jepson Center for the Arts is the final piece of the trio of properties that form the Telfair Museums.

Together, the Telfair Academy, the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters, and the modern Jepson Center for the Arts bridge three centuries of Savannahian history, its people, and its architecture, while offering art patrons and enthusiasts alike a comprehensive and superb collection of artworks by prominent artists, both local, national and internationally famed.

I'm delighted to join many who have recorded Savannah in art throughout its long and storied history.