Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah

Jepson Center for the Arts is one of three buildings that comprise the Telfair Museum of Art. This building marked the first expansion of the Telfair's nearly one hundred and twenty year history, and added more than 50% more exhibition and education space to the complex.

The Center for the Arts is housed in an ultramodern building designed by Moshe Safide. Initially, critics were skeptical about how well the new center would fit in with the surrounding buildings. The Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Owens-Thomas House are two National Historic Landmark buildings, and were built circa 1819. Fortunately, after the Jepson Center for the Arts' unveiling, public reception of the new facility has been warm.

The building itself is actually two separate entities, connected by glass bridges that pass over a protected walkway that was part of Savannah's original 1733 town plan. The center has two large galleries for traveling exhibitions. Permanent galleries include one for African-American artwork, one for Southern art, one for photography, and one for works on paper, a community gallery, a “hands on” gallery for kids and classroom groups, outdoor sculpture areas, educational art studios, a large auditorium, and more.