Telfair Museums announces free weekends to locals to coincide with opening of William O. Golding exhibit

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - The Telfair Museums will be offering a promotion for art lovers unlike anything in its 136-year history. The Jepson Center and the Telfair Academy will open for free to locals across a six-county area of Georgia and South Carolina.

The new, free-admission program from April 2-Aug. 28 includes Chatham, Bryan, Effingham, and Liberty counties in Georgia, and Beaufort and Jasper in South Carolina. This adds 44 free days to the museums calendar in 2022.

The new offering is in conjunction with the opening of the landmark exhibition, The Art of William O. Golding: Hard Knocks, Hardships, and Lots of Experience. The exhibit at the Jepson Center opens April 1, featuring the work of an African American born in Liberty County who spent nearly 50 years at sea.

Golding was first tricked into climbing aboard a ship as a young boy while playing on Savannah’s River Street in the 1880s. After returning to the U.S. Marine Hospital in Savannah, Golding spent several years recreating sights and ships he’d seen during his travels.

The Telfair is already home to 23 of the 130 Golding drawings known to exist. This new exhibit features more than 70 of those drawings in one temporary collection.

The Jepson Center and the Telfair Academy are open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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