Runner-Up Best Art Gallery 2024
Words by BRIENNE WALSH
Photography courtesy ARTS SOUTHEAST
ARTS SOUTHEAST (formerly known as Sulfur Studios) is a stellar art gallery. It’s also a gathering place, a magazine publisher and a support system for artists not only in Savannah, but also throughout the South. “We really want to be a central hub for the arts community here,” says Jon Witzky, the program director of ARTS Southeast.
Located in a two-story brick building in the Starland District, ARTS Southeast was founded in 2014 by three local artists. A decade later, the organization continues to blossom under the leadership of Witzky and Emily Earl, one of the original founders who serves as executive director. Inside, the Ellis Gallery stages exhibitions by artists based in the Southeast every six weeks. The space also includes a supporter gallery curated by gallery assistant and textile artist Samantha Mack; a store featuring goods made by local artists and writers; and 26 below-market-rate studios, one of them dedicated to the ON::View Artist Residency, a month-long program that offers artists free housing and a space to work.
The September residency was held by Byrdie O’Connor, a Kansas-born and New York-based filmmaker and archivist whose work focuses on women and queer stories, and in October, it welcomed William Franco and Miki Seifert, who hail from New Zealand and co-founded With Lime, an artist collective that creates performances, installations and projections that explore the interface between cultures and/or technology.
“The residency brings people from around the world to Savannah so that there can be a cultural exchange,” says Witzky. “It’s great for everybody.”
As if running two galleries, a shop and more than two dozen artists’ studios wasn’t enough, Witzky and Earl are both working artists and also produce Impact, a culture magazine whose most recent issue released in October features an interview with Jeffrey Gibson, the artist who represented the United States at this year’s Venice Biennale. The organization also hosts First Friday every month — a rollicking, family friendly street fair that includes performances, live painting events, open studios and, if you’re lucky, a booth by a local fortune teller. It also curates the Drive Thru Art Box, a public art initiative in the parking lot of Green Truck Pub (2024 Winner Best Burger and Winner Best Fries).
Earl and Witzky say they work so hard because they don’t feel like they have the luxury not to. When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis cut $30 million in funding for arts and cultural institutions in the state in June, they were motivated anew to fortify their mission. “Arts and culture are what make civilizations great,” says Witzky. “I just would not want to live in a place that does not care about art.”
Fortunately, ARTS Southeast just received a Georgia Council for the Arts Bridge Grant, which will allow them to sustain their programming in the upcoming year. This includes an exhibition opening in September that is curated by Will Penny, a multidisciplinary artist who explores technology, such as artificial intelligence, in his work. The exhibition will be a collaboration between ARTS Southeast and Gallery 2424, a new gallery located in Starland. There will also be magazine launches, artist talks, a collaboration with Thompson Savannah and artist happy hours at Colleagues & Lovers, a cocktail bar in Habersham Village.
“Savannah is really bubbling with this intense creative energy right now,” says Earl. “And you can feel it across the art scene and the music scene and the food scene.” In fueling the scene, Earl and Witzky are helping to make the Southeast — and specifically Savannah — one of the most artful places to be right now.
Brienne Walsh is a New Yorker who moved to Savannah four years ago with her family — and never wants to move again. A writer, photographer and art critic who has contributed to The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Interview, Art in America and Real Simple, among many other publications, Brienne currently teaches a class on art criticism at Savannah College of Art and Design.
