Case Study: Art, Earth, Purpose – Reimagining Wilderness on Ossabaw Island

🌍✨ We are in urgent need of innovative ways to connect with our environment as we confront challenges like deforestation and rising sea levels. Imagine a place that prioritizes contemplation over exploitation, fostering a harmonious relationship between humans and nature. Could this setting nurture new paths for creative, scientific, and intellectual growth?

Join us as we delve into a remarkable case study: Ossabaw Island, a vast yet lesser-known gem off Georgia’s coast. This untouched island serves as an "ecological workshop for human creativity," exemplifying that we can both aid in the earth's recovery and ignite limitless ideas and purpose. After inheriting the island in 1958, Eleanor “Sandy” Torrey West dedicated her life to its preservation. In 1961, she and her husband established the ‘Ossabaw Island Project,’ inviting a diverse group of artists, scientists, and thinkers for a unique residency that lasted twenty-one years, with no expectations other than to embrace the wisdom of the island.

Eventually sold to the State of Georgia in 1978 under conditions ensuring its use for “natural, scientific, and cultural study, research, education, and environmentally sound preservation,” Ossabaw continues to retain its wild essence, rarely impacted by outside visitors.

What lessons does the story of Ossabaw offer in today’s crucial environmental context? How might we transition our view of land from ownership to stewardship? This Spotlight event will feature a captivating discussion with Beryl Gilothwest, curator, writer, and art historian, who also serves as the Deputy Director of Research and Exhibitions at the Calder Foundation, and Megan Mayhew Bergman, a contributor to the new book Off the Coast of Paradise: Artists and Ossabaw Island, 1961–Now, and director of an upcoming short film about Sandy West’s ecofeminist legacy. The event will kick off with the inaugural screening of Bergman's film, “A Taste of the Wild: The Legacy of Sandy West.”

📍 Location: Telfair Museums' Jepson Center, Savannah
🎟️ Get your tickets here!

Beryl Gilothwest has worked on numerous exhibition catalogues and is a co-editor of the ongoing exhibit at the Jepson Center. Megan Mayhew Bergman is a celebrated writer and cultural critic, currently leading Creative Writing at Middlebury College.

Join us at Anew, a hub for social impact and discovery, as we explore these profound topics together! 🌱