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If, when you think about the Telfair Museums, you still envision a hushed, highbrow mansion filled with paintings behind velvet-roped barriers, you clearly haven’t been to the Jepson Center to hear the joyful laughter of a thundering herd of fourth-graders as they climb the marble stairs to an interactive world of creativity.
You haven’t seen the curated exhibitions of their artwork, hanging next to an international exhibit and you haven’t seen the awed expressions on the faces of the 4- and 5-year-olds from the Pre-K Head Start program as they create, enjoy and experience the beauty of art.
“Rarely does a day go by when I’m out talking to someone and mention our school tour programs that I don’t hear ‘You do that? I had no idea,’” said Lisa Grove, director and CEO of the museums.
“I think many people think of the Telfair as this big, fancy museum rather than what it truly is – the museum of the people,” Grove said. “That’s the message we want to convey: This is the community’s museum.”
Savannah businessman Bob Jepson, who with his wife Alice has been deeply involved with the Telfair for years, agrees.
“The Telfair has been the cultural crossroads for Savannah since Mary Telfair enabled this thing in 1876,” he said. “So much so that, 130 years later, the families of Savannah embraced the idea of building an additional museum to help bring us into the 21st century.
“At one time, I guess a museum was a place where you hung art and maybe had someone tell you about it,” he said. “But this group of museums is a vibrant city here that is doing so much more than housing stuff on the wall.
“In addition to preserving art, we are teaching people. The museum is establishing itself in the world of art as an entrepreneurial museum, creating a knowledge of art that people have been thirsty for,” Jepson said.
In order to ensure that thirst continues to be slaked, the Telfair has embarked upon a $5 million endowment campaign.
“It’s important to fund the base,” Jepson said. “This is a vibrant city of art, and it takes funds to support the people and facilities that make the Telfair so successful.”
The campaign began quietly a few months ago, Grove said, and has already secured $2.6 million, more than 50 percent of its goal.
“It began with our board during the strategic planning process where we identified the desire to increase that long-term financial sustainability as an important goal,” she said. “So we began it formally kicked it off and were able to secure 100-percent board participation right away, which is a fantastic endorsement for the campaign.
“We began reaching out quietly to key friends of the museum and quickly reached the halfway point, so we’re very encouraged,” she said.
The formal goal is to complete the campaign by March of 2016, which will be the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Jepson Center, Grove said. But the group is confident they will reach $5 million before that.
“This is a campaign for everyone,” Grove said. “You don’t have to have deep pockets to be a part of the Telfair.
“Just visit the museum, become a member, make us a part of your life. That’s what we really want – people coming to the museum and giving it life. We want people to feel that this is their museum.”
Among the campaign priorities are curatorial endowments for the professionals, teachers and scholars chiefly responsible for the acquisition and interpretation of works of art and for the organization of temporary exhibitions; exhibition endowments, museum operations and the myriad of educational and outreach programs such as the Fourth Grade Tour and Pre-K Head Start programs, the summer camps for ages 6-18 and the museum’s summertime participation in Savannah’s parks, playgrounds and community centers in low-income areas of the city.
The campaign is chaired by William T. “Ted” Moore, a retired distinguished professor emeritus from the University of South Carolina and vice chairman of the Telfair Board of Trustees.
“This campaign is important because the arts make life more beautiful,” Moore said.
“We may not be feeding the hungry, but we’re feeding people’s souls.”