Making Marks: A Telfair Exhibit
Creativity in Action
Our Enrichment Center provides engaging opportunities to explore the community, cultivate friendships, and practice skills designed to increase self-confidence and independence. Creativity, fine motor skills, and self-expression are paramount to enhancing individualism. Community inclusion like this represents everything we strive for.
This year our participants were invited to get creative and contribute to an exhibit at the Jepson Center for the Arts. We were thrilled to be included and take part in this momentous show displayed in the heart of historic Savannah. The Telfair Museums have been a vital piece of Savannah’s cultural and social landscape for over a century now. Including our members in this impactful art exhibit means so much to those contributing as well as the instructors who help them thrive.
For 26 years, the Telfair has featured inclusive, community-based art in their exhibit I Have Marks to Make, created by people of different ages, backgrounds, and abilities. Each year the show celebrates the healing and transformative power of self-expression. This year was a little different. Due to Covid-19, participants in the exhibit were asked to mail their art.
“The program includes a presentation of mail art and other works submitted by local residents of all ages and backgrounds expressing their experience of the pandemic year. Just like the pandemic, the end results of mail art are out of our control. Once the envelope has been dropped into the mail, you must let things take their course and have trust in its journey!”
The Telfair provided materials as well as helpful directions explaining the process and purpose of the art, empowering the community to participate in this valuable project. They offered suggestions for different creative techniques as well as a checklist for structure and focus. The resulting art is inspiring and wonderful, giving the audience a unique perspective into the minds of others affected by this pandemic.
