Black News

There is a 1985 calendar honoring Black historical figures hanging on the back of a kitchen pantry door. But few other items remain in the 110-year-old house that Virginia Jackson Kiah transformed into a museum “for the masses” in 1959. More than two decades after the late Black artist and educator’s death in 2001, the vacant structure in historic Cuyler Brownville is devoid of the artwork and artifacts that Kiah and her husband, Calvin Kiah, a former Dean of Education at Savannah State College, once exhibited inside their home for the community to enjoy for about four decades. Cracks, chipped paint and shadows adorn the walls now.

It was a clear winter morning during a site visit in early December. Deborah Johnson-Simon, founder of the African Diaspora Museology Institute, stood inside the dark house, lit solely by sunlight streaming in from an open doorway and holes in the rotting roof and walls. As the head of an organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Black museums, Johnson-Simon has been trying to save the deteriorating Kiah house at 505 W. 36th St. for years through advocacy and fundraising efforts.

Being in the house took her back to the 50s and 60s when she was a little girl, Johnson-Simon said. Had she lived in Savannah at the time, she would have been like the children she has seen at the museum in old photographs, “finding any way I could to get there and to be around people like them and learning about art and museums,” she said.

After leading a successful effort to get a historical marker placed outside the home in 2022, Johnson-Simon’s ultimate goal for the abandoned structure is on its way to finally being accomplished.

<a href="https://media1.connectsavannah.com/connectsavannah/imager/u/original/21405177/kiah_house_12.5_2023_800x1200__1_.png" rel="contentImg_gal-21405158" title="The Kiah house at 505 W. 36th St. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023" data-caption="The Kiah house at 505 W. 36th St. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023   ” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

The Kiah house at 505 W. 36th St. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023

Through a partnership with the city, the Galvan Foundation is preparing to restore the structure and reopen the museum. In July, the Savannah City Council approved an agreement with the nonprofit developer to provide $500,000 towards the acquisition and restoration effort. The partnership was selected among competing proposals by the previous owner, the Historic Savannah Foundation, which had hoped to find a preservation minded buyer for the property it acquired in 2022, after Kiah’s heirs signed off on the sale.

Galvan acquired the property in October and obtained approval from the Historic Preservation Commission a month later to move forward with their restoration plan. The city council then approved a petition on Dec. 7 to rezone the house from residential to commercial so that it could be used as a museum – with the restriction that no other uses would be permitted.

As of late November, Galvan was planning to start construction in March and open the museum about one year later, according to Vice President Dan Kent. The project is a perfect match for Galvan’s Public Forum initiative, which aims to explore the meaning, experience and future of American Democracy through the arts, letters, scientific inquiry, and open dialogue, Kent said.

“Kiah House is an opportunity to restore a historic building with significant social and cultural history and reintroduce it as an active arts and community service program,” he said. “We aim to restore the building to the ‘Kiah Period’ and establish a new program that pays homage to Virginia Kiah’s original ‘museum for the masses,’ when the space served as part art museum, part natural history museum, and part community organizing space – specifically for civil rights activists and artists.”

<a href="https://media1.connectsavannah.com/connectsavannah/imager/u/original/21405258/kiah_house_12.5_2023_800x1200__10_.png" rel="contentImg_gal-21405158" title="Daniel Osofsky and Deborah Johnson-Simon stand outside the Kiah house next to the former museum's historical marker. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023" data-caption="Daniel Osofsky and Deborah Johnson-Simon stand outside the Kiah house next to the former museum’s historical marker. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023   ” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

Daniel Osofsky and Deborah Johnson-Simon stand outside the Kiah house next to the former museum’s historical marker. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023

While the main house will be saved, a structural engineer found that the lack of maintenance, termite infestations and environmental factors prevented the carriage house in the backyard from being restored. Instead, the building is expected to be carefully torn down via a process called deconstruction so the structure’s materials can be salvaged for reuse. A similar structure will be built in its place that Kent said will include art studio space and an affordable housing unit for a museum employee or a local community resident.

The pending restoration was recently praised by Lavina Jenkins, who has lived in the house across the street since 1950. Jenkins said she remembers sitting on her porch and watching the Kiahs renovate their home for use as a museum, which included the installation of a large 2-story window on the front façade that is now covered by gray plywood.

“It was really, really beautiful,” Jenkins said. “You don’t know how happy I am to see now that it will be rehabbed and brought back to its glory.”

Jenkins voiced her enthusiasm for the project at an event Johnson-Simon put on in November to celebrate the 64th anniversary of the opening of the museum. Support was also expressed by Cuyler Brownville Neighborhood Association President Gloria Williams and former Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson, who said his hope was that the museum would introduce participants to the history of the Kiahs and the importance of African American art, while hosting national and international exhibits.

Johnson-Simon said she wishes the home could have been restored sooner, but that she is grateful that Galvan has taken on the responsibility before it was too late.

<a href="https://media2.connectsavannah.com/connectsavannah/imager/u/original/21405185/kiah_house_12.5_2023_800x1200__11_.png" rel="contentImg_gal-21405158" title="Deborah Johnson-Simon at the Kiah house during a recent site visit. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023" data-caption="Deborah Johnson-Simon at the Kiah house during a recent site visit. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023   ” class=”uk-display-block uk-position-relative uk-visible-toggle”> click to enlarge

Deborah Johnson-Simon at the Kiah house during a recent site visit. Eric Curl/Dec. 5, 2023

“My conversations with the new owner brings hope for something even brighter than even Calvin and Virginia Kiah could have envisioned for their lasting legacy,” she said. “As for mec, I’m also grateful that the museum anthropology research of the Kiah Museum story has equipped me to open this field in anthropology to broader audiences in museum anthropology.”

Johnson-Simon will be continuing her advocacy for Black museums and history in conjunction with the Kiah project and Galvan’s acquisition of the homes of other local figures, including the late civil rights icon, W.W. Law. Plans for those projects are still being developed as the nonprofit focuses on the Kiah house, according to Galvan officials.

About the Kiah Museum House

Opened in 1959, the Kiah House Museum in historic Cuyler Brownville offered local youth the opportunity to visit a public and admission-free museum within a familiar and comfortable context during a significant period of racial segregation and discrimination in the United States. A skilled and nationally-recognized portrait painter, Virginia Kiah was inspired to open the “museum for the masses” based upon her own experience of being excluded from visiting museums as a Black child during the era of Jim Crow in Baltimore, Maryland. The museum featured paintings, sculptures, furniture, china, fossils, architectural elements, and other diverse collections appealing to a broad range of interests. The Kiah Museum served the local community until Virginia’s death in 2001.

Source: African Diaspora Museology Institute

RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News – Arts & Entertainment