By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Coastal Georgia > Chatham County > Savannah

Kids and their parents can participate in all kinds of artistic activities in the ArtZeum Gallery in the Jepson Center for the Arts at Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah. 

The oldest public art museum in the South, Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, is also one of its finest. Founded in 1883 when prominent Savannah philanthropist Mary Telfair left her home and its furnishing to the Georgia Historical Society to be opened as a museum, today’s Telfair consists of three unique buildings: the Telfair Academy, the Owens-Thomas House, and the Jepson Center for the Arts.

Designed in the Regency style by English architect William Jay, the Telfair Academy, a National Historic Landmark, houses 19th- and 20th-century American and European art from the museum’s permanent collection, including paintings, works on paper, sculpture, and decorative arts.

The Owens-Thomas House, also a National Historic Landmark and also designed by William Jay but notably different in style, is considered one of the finest examples of English Regency architecture in the country. In addition to the historic house museum - featuring decorative art ranging from the late 18th to the early 19th century - the site includes rare intact urban slave quarters, an English-inspired parterre garden, and an original carriage house. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Atlanta Metro  > Fulton County > Atlanta

Art is a real hands-on experience at the High Museum’s “Toddler Thursday” workshops in the Greene Family Learning Gallery.

There are numerous reasons to visit the High Museum of Art in Atlanta—everything from the permanent collection “American Art” to the newly opened exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci: Hand of the Genius.” But did you know about the ongoing family programs that the High hosts each week?

Toddler Thursday is just that — on Thursdays between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., you can drop by the Greene Family Learning Gallery (a space designed for children where families can play together in five, fun activity areas) with your 2 - 5 year old to create a piece of art. Remaining projects for Toddler Thursdays this month show parents and little ones how to make collages (October 22) and wearable crowns (October 29).

Often, the High Museum of Art presents programs for families that are an outgrowth of current exhibitions. For instance, in conjunction with its John Portman exhibit, the museum will collaborate with the American Institute of Architects to present the Youth Architecture Fair for students, teachers and families on October 24. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > East Central Georgia > Richmond County > Augusta

“Back Porches, Macon, Georgia, 1948″ is one of the paintings currently hanging in the Emil Holzhauer: The Georgia Years exhibition at the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta. 

For those who appreciate American Southern art – from the student to the aficionado – the Morris Museum of Art holds wonders. It is the first museum dedicated to the art and artists of the American South. The museum houses a permanent collection of nearly 5,000 pieces consisting of 200 years of Southern American paintings, including antebellum art, Civil War art, African-American art, early Southern 20th century paintings and contemporary works.

The Morris Museum of Art, located on downtown Augusta’s Riverwalk, hosts eight to ten special exhibitions every year. Exhibits for the remainder of this year include:

• Emil Holzhauer: The Georgia Years, August 29 – November 29, 2009
• William Christenberry: Photographs, 1961 – 2005, September 12 – November 8, 2009
• Response and Memory: The Art of Beverly Buchanan, November 21 – January 31, 2010
• Deep Sea: Drawings by William Golding, December 12 – March 14, 2010
• Regional Dialect: American Scene Paintings from the John and Susan Horseman Collection, March 6 – May 30, 2010

Read more about Museums in Georgia, Augusta, and Richmond County, or find other activities in the East Central Georgia Travel Region here at Brown’s Guides.

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Numerous exhibits and dioramas depicting the timeline of Southeastern Indians can be viewed at the Funk Heritage Center.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the Funk Heritage Center at Reinhardt College in Waleska is Georgia’s “Official Frontier and Southeastern Indian Interpretive Center,” and it lives up to its designation.

The Center consists of the Bennett History Museum – a 7,000-square-foot exhibit space with a theater and museum store – and an Appalachian Settlement with relocated authentic log cabins and other 19th century farm buildings. All total, the Center houses more than 6,000 artifacts donated by area collectors, most of them illustrative of the area’s many Indian cultures.

In the area of the museum known as the Long House, there are artifacts and text panels telling the story of the earliest encounters between Europeans and the people of the Southeast. You can also view a 15-minute film on the Southeastern Indians. In the Hall of Ancients exhibit area, you will see dioramas depicting the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian and Historic periods as well as a timeline, maps and information about the Cherokee Indian removal from Georgia during the 1830s known as the Trail of Tears. The centerpiece of this area is a granite petroglyph that is 11 feet long, 5 feel wide and 1.5 feet thick. This ancient and mysterious carved rock was found years ago on a farm in the Hickory Log area of Cherokee County near the Etowah River about four miles north of Canton. (more…)

 By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Artists and artisans from around the country travel to the North Georgia Mountains on Memorial Day weekend to participate in the annual Arts in the Park Festival in Blue Ridge.

For the 33rd year, the Arts in the Park Festival is taking place this weekend, May 23 –May 24, in historic Blue Ridge City Park in Blue Ridge at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Sponsored by the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association—which also sponsors the Wildlife Art Festival of North Georgia, the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference, and the Southern Appalachian Artists’ Guild National Juried Show—the event draws about 15,000 people each Memorial Day weekend.

The festival boasts some of the finest arts and crafts in the southeast. You’ll find more than 150 booths with fine art, handmade crafts, and good food. There will be artists’ demonstrations and children’s art activities as well—and as you might expect, there will be plenty of fine mountain music. (more…)