Why you should experience Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM) in Savannah, Georgia.
Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM) is a visionary contemporary art museum where Historic District's architectural legacy, artistic innovation, family creativity, and educational leadership redefine one of the South's most influential cultural institutions.
Set along West York Street near Barnard Street and just steps from Telfair Square, this striking contemporary museum blends soaring light-filled galleries, immersive installations, hands-on creative spaces, cutting-edge exhibitions, and architecturally dramatic public interiors into an experience that welcomes visitors of every generation. Monumental glass walls, Portuguese limestone, sculptural circulation spaces, and flexible galleries designed for evolving exhibitions establish a discussion between modern architecture and Savannah's historic urban fabric. Since the addition of the Telfair Children's Art Museum, the complex has expanded its mission beyond exhibition into an environment where creativity, experimentation, and lifelong learning flourish together. The result is a museum defined by architectural excellence, artistic discovery, and one of Georgia's most innovative cultural destinations.
What you should know about Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM).
Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM) is best known for opening in 2006 as the contemporary centerpiece of Telfair Museums, the oldest public art museum in the American South, through a landmark building designed by internationally acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie that expanded the institution's capacity for major traveling exhibitions, contemporary art, education, and community engagement while carefully responding to the architectural requirements of Savannah's National Historic Landmark District. Safdie's design employs sweeping glass façades, Portuguese limestone cladding, a dramatic curved stone entrance hall, a trellised glass-and-steel roof, rooftop sculpture terraces, a 200-seat auditorium, dedicated education studios, and flexible galleries for Southern art, African American art, photography, and internationally touring exhibitions, demonstrating how contemporary architecture can respectfully coexist within one of America's most significant historic cityscapes. In July 2023, the museum further transformed its educational mission with the opening of Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM), the culmination of a years-long initiative developed in partnership with Savannah-based design firm FREN Inc., creating one of the nation's few museum spaces devoted entirely to children's artistic exploration through immersive environments, interactive exhibitions, hands-on creative experiences, and continually evolving installations that encourage curiosity, experimentation, and lifelong engagement with art. Together, the Jepson Center and CAM unify Telfair Museums' nearly century-and-a-half legacy of collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting art while establishing an internationally respected model that seamlessly integrates architecture, contemporary exhibitions, historic preservation, and family-centered learning.
Visitors move effortlessly between internationally touring exhibitions, permanent collections, interactive educational galleries, contemporary installations, and imaginative children's environments that collectively demonstrate the museum's commitment to making art accessible across generations. Every gallery demonstrates how thoughtful architecture, innovative exhibition design, and ambitious educational programming have transformed Jepson Center into one of the Southeast's foremost destinations for contemporary art while strengthening Savannah's reputation as one of America's leading cultural cities.
How to fold Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM) into your trip.
Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM) works as the cultural centerpiece of an exploration through Savannah's celebrated museum district.
Begin at Telfair Square, where one of Savannah's original Oglethorpe squares introduces the city's remarkable architectural heritage before entering Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM) to experience one of the South's premier contemporary museums. Continue to Telfair Academy, whose nineteenth-century collections reveal the origins of America's oldest public art museum in the South while complementing the Jepson Center's contemporary vision. Conclude at SCAD Museum of Art, where internationally acclaimed exhibitions provide a fitting finale celebrating Savannah's extraordinary commitment to artistic innovation and architectural preservation. The progression moves naturally from historic civic landscape to contemporary museum before concluding through two defining institutions of Savannah's artistic legacy, revealing why Jepson Center & Telfair Children's Art Museum (CAM) remains one of the city's essential cultural experiences.
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