|
|
|
Changes to 2008 Programming Schedule
at the Beach Institute
As first reported in the Summer 2007 newsletter, the Beach Institute is currently undergoing a million dollar renovation with assistance of funding from the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). This project will update the facilities to display and adequately house the multi-million dollar permanent collection of African American art and historical documents for future generations of Savannahians and tourists alike. Because of the immense scope and nature of the project, and our desire to present the highest quality exhibits, in the proper context, the Foundation has been forced to reschedule some of the 2008 programming.
The exhibit by Tom Feelings, The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo, originally scheduled to open on Sunday, March 30, 2008 has been rescheduled to open on September 7, 2008. In addition to the Middle Passage exhibit, we will be presenting the colorful and striking works of Houston artist Ted Ellis. Please join us as we celebrate the Grand Re-Opening of the Beach Institute with these two moving exhibits.
|
|
September 7 - November 1
|
"The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo"
Drawings from the book by Tom Feelings
In September 2008, the Beach Institute will host a grand re-opening of the facility with an exhibit by internationally known artist Tom Feelings, entitled: The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo . The theme for programs for the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation for 2008 is: “The Slave Period and the Middle Passage.”Consistent with this theme, Feelings work of Fifty-two narrative drawings details the horror of the importation of Africans from the old world of freedom to a strange new world of slavery. These drawings are the original mixed media works of tempera, pen and tissue as reproduced in the celebrated children’s book of the same title. They are painfully, yet beautifully, compelling images which tell the story of the uglier and perhaps the most silenced period of American history. As in the book, the pictures tell the story completely without words. A small number of text panels accompany this exhibition to explain the artist’s intent, history and experience of “writing” such a book. This is a story of immense magnitude and force, a story for all people and all ages. An account that must be told and never forgotten--a reminder, a warning that, as the artist states, “a government that tolerates the dehumanization of human beings in its infancy and for such a long period of time is capable of tolerating it in the present.”
|
September 7 - November 1
|
"The Works of Ted Ellis" - Ted Ellis
Ted Ellis, a resident of Texas, is a self-taught, professional artist who refers to himself as a “creative historian,” who maintains a body of work compiled over 15 years that is stylistically reminiscent of Romere Bearden and Jacob Lawrence. His works are represented in the private collections of such notable individuals as: Angela Bassett, Blair Underwood, Susan Taylor and Bryant Gumbel. He has been commissioned by such corporations as: Walt Disney Studios, The Minute Maid Company, Coca-Cola, Phillip Morris, Exxon/Mobile, and Avon, Inc. The art in this exhibit was created to focus solely on this year’s theme (The Middle Passage and Slavery). Mr. Ellis created twenty oil paintings, of varying sizes that encompass a myriad of different settings and emotions that still resonate from this era. |
|
