Molly Taylor, executive director of the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum since March of last year, and the subject of a profile in our April print issue, has assembled a dream team! Charged with extending the Museum’s reach and educational programming, she quickly realized that to firmly position it in the pantheon of beloved community nonprofits she would need assistance. The accomplished director, who holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Connecticut College and a master’s degree in arts administration from Columbia University, called on the expertise of two consultants who, like her, had previously worked for Telfair Museums: communications and tourism consultant, Michelle Riley, and curatorial consultant, Tania Sammons.
I recently met with all three women to discuss upcoming art happenings at the Museum. I find it both intriguing and impressive that Ships of the Sea can even be considered an art venue! The inside space is tightly packed with nautical exhibits and numerous glass cases containing detailed replicas of ships, while the outside gardens are largely uncovered, but over the years I have attended wonderful installations and painting shows. Perhaps the one that affected me most deeply was 2021’s Human Cargo: Savannah and the Oceanic Slave Trade which featured reproductions of the manifests of slave ships coming into Savannah, and a deconstructed slave ship and ceramic sculptures in the outside pool representing Africans cast overboard during their harrowing transatlantic crossing.
Taylor, Riley, and Sammons have big plans for the next three shows at the Museum. First up is Celestial Seafarers, a nighttime contemporary art and light installation on the evenings of May 22 and May 23. Ships of the Sea’s venue manager, Nicole Elliott, has assembled an impressive list of contemporary artists - Joshua Alexander, Greg Finger, Marcus Kenney, Kevin Kirkwood, Will Penny, Abby Portner, Matt Van Rys, and Todd Schroeder. Charged with immersing the museum in light, sound, video, and performance, their creations will honor Savannah’s role in inspiring a national holiday…
The Steamship Savannah departed River Street on May 22, 1819, and arrived in Liverpool, England a month later. By 1819, shipping merchant William Scarbrough, the lead investor and president of the Steamship Savannah, was at the height of his power and wealth. He commissioned English architect William Jay to build his Greek Revival home (which now houses the Museum) and hosted a ball for President Monroe on the week the ship set sail. In 1933, Congress declared May 22 as National Maritime Day to both commemorate this momentous, first-ever, steamship voyage across the ocean and to celebrate America’s maritime industry.
Artists participating in the Celestial Seafarers light and sound festival have been given carte blanche to use their medium to draw attention to the maritime holiday. Some will bathe us in nautical sounds; others will incorporate photographs of the Museum’s ship models into projected imagery; and Kevin Kirkwood, who I interviewed this January, will create hope and inspiration through a sonic landscape with A Sky Full of Stars. Inspired by the 2014 Coldplay album Ghost Stories, he tells me, “This installation is an immersive experience that invites you to be submerged in over 2,000 cubic feet of joy.” Sounds delicious.
Next up for the Maritime Museum is a summer installation entitled Waves of Wonder featuring works funded by UGA Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s Artists, Writers, and Scholars (AWS) Program. Opening with a cocktail party on Wednesday, June 5 that is free and open to the public, the show encompasses a diverse range of disciplines - painting, sculpture, photography, illustration, sound, film, and even dance from eleven former and current AWS grant recipients. Riley says, “Each project offers a fresh perspective on the intricate relationships that define coastal life, from the interconnectedness of animal communities to the profound connections between humans and the natural world.”
Interestingly, this multi-media and multi-sensory show came about because Location Gallery director Peter E. Roberts introduced Molly Taylor to artist Jen Nolan, subject of a July 2022 column. Nolan is a current AWS award winner, but her beautiful sea life paintings are small-scale, and so curator Tania Sammons started investigating and inviting the participation of the other artists, writers, and scholars who have utilized their creativity in projects designed to bring empathy and awareness to our coastal environment.
For example, local plein air painter Kip Bradley will showcase oils from some of the six marsh locations he painted on four different occasions over the course of a year; UGA professor and composer Peter Van Zandt Lane is creating an original sound installation; and assistant professor of dance at Kennesaw State, choreographer Autumn Eckman, is putting together a short film, shot at Jekyll Island’s driftwood beach, which will be projected outside over the reflecting pool. Sammons tells me, “All the participants are over the moon that we are doing this!” The show runs through Labor Day.
Finally, mark your calendars for the Museum’s final show of the year, Sea of Ink: Savannah Maritime Tattoos, which will run from September 19 through May of next year. The opening night party, co-hosted in collaboration with the 3rd Annual Savannah Tattoo Arts Festival, will be a not-to-be-missed event exploring the cultural, historical, and artistic underpinning of maritime tattoos in Savannah. The initial idea for the show was borne when executive director Taylor met a woman with a tattoo depicting a sailor’s scrimshaw – an engraving on whale bone made during the nineteenth century whaling trade.
Curator Sammons has commissioned Savannah-based photographers Tom Sanders and Mike Schalk to both document people and their tattoos, and to document tattoo artists in their studio spaces. By researching how the tattoos are tied to the docks and ships of Savannah, Sammons says, “I am contextualizing that story within the maritime industry.” Meanwhile, marketing guru Riley is excited about showcasing the Museum to a different audience. While the summer exhibition is perfect for families, she says of September’s opening party, “You can get a real tattoo; you can get a fake tattoo; you can promenade and show off your current tattoos; you can dance; you can drink; we’ll have dozens of tattoo shops… It’s going to be wonderful!”
Savannah’s history IS maritime history, and Molly Taylor and her dream team are determined to make Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum accessible to all by firmly integrating it into the community. Most events are very reasonably priced: tickets to May 22 and May 23’s Celestial Seafarers start at just $20 and help support the Museum’s educational programming. Find the ticket link and full details about upcoming happenings under the events tab at www.shipsofthesea.org.
Also on the horizon is an upcoming display of maritime images from the HunterMaclean collection (including Jack Leigh’s photographs of stevedores, and Christopher Murphy’s century-old pen-and-ink drawings of the Savannah harbor), and a show to be curated by a young curatorial assistant currently being mentored. And of course, stay tuned for the exciting plans to add an education building and auditorium, designed by Christian Sottile, right next to the William Scarbrough House and Garden located at 41 Martin Luther King Boulevard.
