Savannah College of Art and Design has expanded its museum, re-imagining it as the new SCAD Museum of Art
Savannah College of Art and Design has expanded its museum, re-imagining it as the new SCAD Museum of Art
(Image credit: Photography by Adam Kuehl; Courtesy of SCAD)
By Ellen Himelfarb
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It's not every day a new building rises in Savannah, a city that experienced its heyday in the mid-19th century. So Sottile & Sottile's addition to the antebellum structure that houses the museum at Savannah College of Art and Design is a coup for this historic centre in America's deep south.

The new SCAD Museum of Art's triumph is a 25m steel and glass lantern, tall enough to feature alongside the spires and copper domes on the city's skyline. But the real marvel is the drastic juxtaposition between the original Greek Revival structure - including ruins of an 1853 railway depot - and the soaring, light-filled spaces conceived by Christian Sottile, also a SCAD professor and alumnus. Together, they grow the museum's exhibition and education space by more than 6,000 sq m.

Added components include indoor and outdoor theatres, galleries, 'learning laboratories' and a massive auditorium, all incorporating antique bricks from the original site.

The building is inaugurated by site-specific exhibits by four American artists: sculptor Liza Lou, portraitist Kehinde Wiley and installation artists Bill Viola and Kendall Buster. The new SCAD Museum of Art also incorporates the freshly revamped Walter O Evans Center for African American Studies, one of the finest black art collections in the US.

But perhaps most excitingly, the vivacious former US

Vogue editor-at-large, Andre Leon Talley, who received an honorary doctorate from SCAD in 2008, has launched his eponymous fashion gallery, featuring designs by Tom Ford, Oscar de la Renta, Zac Posen, Isabel Toledo and

Manolo Blahnik.

To rework the existing antebellum structure

To rework the existing antebellum structure, the college called on Savannah-based architects Sottile & Sottile

(Image credit: Photography by Dennis Burnett; Courtesy of SCAD)

A view of the upper terrace

A view of the upper terrace. Sottile & Sottile have grown the museum’s exhibition and education space by more than 6,000 sq m

(Image credit: Photography by Adam Kuehl; Courtesy of SCAD)

The building’s triumph is a 25m steel and glass lantern

The building’s triumph is a 25m steel and glass lantern, tall enough to feature alongside the spires and copper domes on the city’s skyline

(Image credit: Photography by Adam Kuehl; Courtesy of SCAD)

The architects have juxtaposed the original Greek Revival structure

The architects have juxtaposed the original Greek Revival structure, including ruins of an 1853 railway depot...

SCAD Museum of Art.

(Image credit: Photo by Wayne C. Moore. Courtesy of SCAD)

With dramatic, light-filled spaces

... with dramatic, light-filled spaces

(Image credit: Photography by Adam Kuehl; Courtesy of SCAD)

Interior view of the historic Central of Georgia Railroad depot

Interior view of the historic Central of Georgia Railroad depot before preservation

(Image credit: Photography by Wayne C. Moore; Courtesy of SCAD)

Exterior view of the Central of Georgia Railroad depot

Exterior view of the Central of Georgia Railroad depot before preservation

(Image credit: Photography by Wayne C. Moore; Courtesy of SCAD)

Added components to the museum include indoor and outdoor theatres

Added components to the museum include indoor and outdoor theatres, galleries, ’learning laboratories’ and a massive auditorium, all incorporating antique bricks from the original site

(Image credit: Photography by Adam Kuehl; Courtesy of SCAD)

The view of the galleries within the new SCAD Museum of Art

Illustration depicting the view of the galleries within the new SCAD Museum of Art

(Image credit: Sottile & Sottile)

Illustration of the lantern atrium and gallery entrance

Illustration of the lantern atrium and gallery entrance

(Image credit: Sottile & Sottile)

Sectional perspective of the theatre

Sectional perspective of the theatre

(Image credit: Sottile & Sottile)

The renovated and expanded museum launches with site-specific exhibits

The renovated and expanded museum launches with site-specific exhibits by four American artists: sculptor Liza Lou, portraitist Kehinde Wiley and installation artists Bill Viola and Kendall Buster. Pictured here is ’The Judgment Day' by Aaron Douglas, 1927.

From the collection of the Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies, SCAD Museum of Art

(Image credit: Aaron Douglas)

Kendall Buster’s ’New Growth

Kendall Buster’s ’New Growth: Stratum Field’ is a site-specific sculptural installation designed to engage with the resonant features of the museum’s new 290-foot south-facing gallery

(Image credit: Photography by Frazer Spowart; Courtesy of SCAD)

Installation view of the the solo exhibition

Installation view of the the solo exhibition of recent works

(Image credit: portraitist Kehinde Wiley)

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great,

From the Ann and Mel Schaffer Family Collection; Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, California and Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

(Image credit: Kehinde Wiley)

The Piano Lesson b. 1911

’The Piano Lesson b. 1911, Charlotte, North Carolina’

(Image credit: Courtesy of SCAD Museum of Art, The Walter O. Evans Collection of African American Art)

Talley has curated an exhibition, entitled High Style

For the André Leon Talley Gallery inauguration, Talley has curated an exhibition, entitled ’High Style’, featuring the seminal works of the honorary recipients of the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award

(Image credit: Photography by Brad Rankin; Courtesy of SCAD)

The gallery will also showcase the career-defining moments of contemporary fashion stars

The gallery will also showcase the career-defining moments of contemporary fashion stars such as Tom Ford, Oscar de la Renta, Zac Posen, Isabel Toledo and Manolo Blahnik

(Image credit: Photography by Brad Rankin; Courtesy of SCAD)

The white square as a classical geometric starting-point, the four panels

Taking the white square as a classical geometric starting-point, the four panels in Stephen Antonakos’ ’Tessares’ are meant to show how different feelings and meanings may result from subtle formal and chromatic variations

(Image credit: Photography by John McKinnon; Courtesy of SCAD)

One of the four panels in the ’Tessares’ exhibit

One of the four panels in the ’Tessares’ exhibit by Stephen Anotonakos

(Image credit: Photography by John McKinnon; Courtesy of SCAD)

An external performance projection

An external performance projection by Nick Cave, entitled ’Drive-By’, features Cave and numerous dancers, suited like supernatural beings, energetically moving and interacting in a jovial ceremony

(Image credit: Photography by John McKinnon; Courtesy of SCAD)

ADDRESS

SCAD Museum of Art
601 Turner Blvd.
Savannah, Georgia

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Ellen Himelfarb
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