Sidewalk Art and Zanele Muholi courtesy of Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah has become one of my favorite places to visit since moving to Fernandina Beach, FL in 2012. Where I live is an easy two-hour ride along Interstate 95 from Savannah. I’m there two or three times a year.
Savannah stands out for its historic architecture and squares and ancient trees. It’s one of the few walkable cities of any size in the South. Those attributes go hand-in-hand with Savannah’s largest in the nation National Historic Landmark district.
It’s always had a strong restaurant and cocktail scene. The hotels are increasingly exceptional.
Events produced by the Savannah College of Art and Design generally bring me there now. SCAD has transformed Savannah from what used to be a military town into a college town. A welcome transition.
Because of Savannah’s strict historic preservation codes, SCAD’s slow growth since opening in 1978, and the school’s interest in saving and using existing buildings instead of tearing them down to build new or sprawling outside of the historic downtown – HURRAY! – SCAD buildings are spread across town, meaning SCAD students are spread across town. I live in what amounts to a retirement community. Seeing young people – as strange as this sounds – is a real treat for me when I travel.
SCAD enrolls roughly 18,500 students across campuses in Savannah, Atlanta, Lacoste, France, and online, with Savannah being the original and largest. It offers more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs in specialties ranging from interior design, to architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and a variety of visual art disciplines. SCAD prides itself on being “the University for creative careers” and boasts that 99% of recent graduates were employed, furthering their education, or both, within 12 months of graduating.
My most recent visit to Savannah coincided with SCAD’s 44th annual Sidewalk Art Festival April 26, 2025, in Forsyth Park. A perfect, sunny, not-yet-hot late spring day had more than 10,000 visitors to the Park enjoying sidewalk squares chalk drawn by hundreds of SCAD students, alumni and high school kids along with live music. Squares are composed into sprawling, map-like scenes resembling aerial views of farmland or blueprints for a dream garden, a process not unlike what you’d find in a thoughtfully curated photo collage maker, only entirely analog, textured, and tactile.
Savannah has a beach, too, and SCAD students put it to use during the annual SCAD Sand Arts Festival in early May each year. Right on the heels of Sidewalk Arts Festival before the end of the academic term and student dispersal over summer, SCAD students and alumni take to Tybee’s South Beach transforming the shoreline into a dazzling sculpture gallery.
Both events are free to the public.
SCAD Savannah also has an art museum I visit regularly, particularly during its signature spring exhibition and talks series: SCAD deFINE ART. Sanford Biggers was a previous headliner. This year’s star attraction was Zanele Muholi (b. 1972, Umlazi, SouthAfrica). I was first introduced to the esteemed visual activist and artist at the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, FL, 40 minutes south of where I live, during a 2021 exhibition there.
Blown away.
The non-binary artist is known for their work engaging issues of gender identity, representation, and race, celebrates their LGBTQIA+ community through the mediums of photography, film, and sculpture. Muholi’s works are both celebration and confrontation. With right wing America attempting to blame its problems on transgendered people, immigrants, and minorities, Muholi forces all those identities into prominent public spaces. No wonder the arts are under attack in America like they’ve never been before with a fascist, anti-trans, anti-immigrant, racist federal government the likes of which the country hasn’t seen before in power.
“Zanele Muholi’s visually arresting self-portraits compel viewers to consider timely topics such as contrast, dignity, solidarity, difference, history and activism in meaningful ways,” then Cummer Executive Director Andrea Barnwell Brownlee said when announcing the Jacksonville exhibition. “Each one invites deep looking and, ultimately, encourages viewers to ask themselves critical questions about empathy, courage and the power of each and every voice.”
SCAD Museum of Art’s presentation of their work through July 6, 2025, on view with nine other exhibitions, features the iconic self-portraits, some blown up wall size, along with a stunning sculpture, and a new format debuted by the artist at SCAD: light boxes.
Savannah’s preserved history has always encouraged the city to look backward. SCAD – it’s students, teachers, and museum – thankfully, pushes Savannah to look forward.
