Press Release
Savannah GA… I Have Marks to Make, a community exhibition focused on art therapy, will open on Dec. 10 at Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center. Celebrating the power of art to transform lives, the exhibition features artwork by individuals of all ages with disabilities or in rehabilitation from injury or illness. The exhibition includes work from Telfair’s community outreach classes, art produced by more than 10 organizations and rehabilitation centers, and work from local schools.
Now in its 22nd year as one of the museum’s longest running programs, I Have Marks to Make began as an exhibition of art from the city’s Therapeutics Department. Later, it grew to include art from rehabilitation programs at local hospitals, students from Savannah-Chatham Public Schools, and in particular, Telfair Museums’ outreach programs to agencies that serve individuals with special needs.
Over half of the works featured in the exhibition are created in Telfair’s outreach programs to local health and wellness organizations. The artworks are inclusive, uncurated and illustrates the artistic capabilities of those in our community.
“I Have Marks to Make demonstrates that the process of art making can be meaningful and healing activity for anyone,” said Harry DeLorme, Senior Curator of Education for Telfair Museums.
The name of the exhibit originated with one of the early participants in the program, Katharine Hartwig Dahl. In a poem about her struggle to overcome traumatic injury and return to her practice of making art, she included the sentence “I have marks to make,” describing how art supported her rehabilitation. The director and education staff were taken with her words, embracing it as the theme for the exhibition.
The exhibition will be on display in the community galleries until Jan. 1, 2017.
Related programs:
Free Family Day
Saturday, December 10
1-4 pm / Jepson Center / Free and open to public
Join us for our annual exhibition, and enjoy hands-on activities at this opening celebration and festival. Learn about artistic empowerment and activate your senses by creating art with different materials.
Opening Program
Saturday, December 10
2pm / Jepson Center Neises Auditorium
Marks will open with an auditorium program of readings presented by participants in the museum’s outreach programs from organizations including the Savannah Center for Blind and Low Vision, the Department of Veterans Affairs Primary Care Clinic, as well as longtime participant and local writer, Robert Cohen.
Community partners include the Rehabilitation Hospital of Savannah; Coastal Center for Developmental Services, Inc.; St. Joseph’s/Candler Rehabilitation; LIFE, Inc.; Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools Department for Exceptional Children; the City of Savannah’s Therapeutics Program; Savannah Speech and Hearing Center Stroke Survivors’ Group; the Savannah Center for Blind and Low Vision, Inc.; Department of Veterans Affairs—Savannah Primary Care Clinic; Goodwill’s ADVANCE Acquired Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program; and Ruth Byck Adult Daytime Care.
Funding and other support for the I Have Marks to Make exhibit illustrates the sense of community created by art and rehabilitation.
