Davenport House's Artisan Spotlight Series set to kick off

 'It was born out of this desire to support the local Savannah arts artists and artisans and have them engage with us in our space,' Davenport director Danielle Hodes said.

THE Artisan Spotlight Series observes local talent by providing a platform for both artists and artisans to share their creativity with Savannah residents and traveling visitors.

The creative workshops will be held at the Historic Kennedy Pharmacy at 323 E Broughton St. Davenport House Museum Director Danielle Hodes, also organizes the Artisan Spotlight Series and shared exciting information about the upcoming event on July 13th. 

Hodes started working at the Davenport House in September of last year. She said that the Historic Kennedy Pharmacy was used as a shop building, and contained staff offices. She said that she was confident they could do more with the building. 

“In collaboration with my staff, we talked a lot about what can the space be. What can we do? How can we engage more with the local Savannah community? What we then really settled on was giving that building its mission of supporting local Savannah artists and artisans," she explained.

"We started by deciding we wanted to work with more artists and artisans and showcase them in our shop. But also saying, we should create a programming series too. That's sort of how the Artisan Skylight series was. It was born out of this desire to support the local Savannah arts artists and artisans and have them engage with us in our space,” she said. 

Hodes remarked that featured artists are chosen by preestablished connections or the local artists reach out. There was a launch event in March which featured fourteen women artists.

This event was catered towards Women’s History Month. Following this event, local artists began to reach out to see how they could get involved. 

Three programs took place in April, May, and June. Hodes said that these were successful as they were sold-out events and 95% of the attendees were Savannah locals! 

Furthermore, Hodes said that they are open to having conversations with artists who are interested in working with the Historic Kennedy Pharmacy. Also, she wants to showcase local artists and artisans.

                                     Work by September artist Amy Challis 

Traditional artist Amy Challis will be featured in September with watercolors. Local candle company owner Andrea Cahigal will be hosting a candle-making workshop in October. Renowned bartender Loni Lewis will have a cocktail and mocktail workshop in December. 

                           Loni Lewis is set to be the Mixologist par excellence

New artist Ivan Chow, will be featured on July 13. He will be doing hand sketching. 

“And that's even a little different for us. It contains an informational lecture part for the first half of the program which will talk about the cognitive benefits of hand sketching and how it's good for your brain. The latter half of that workshop is gonna be hand sketching with Ivan's guide guidance around our campus. So that's gonna be a bit of a new venture for us,” Hodes said. 

                              Live sketch by this month's artist Ivan Chow

Creating a space for artists as well as the local community is what is most important to Hodes. Artists are allowed to not only showcase their work, but also they get to teach and show their audiences as well.

She said that she knows that the Artisan Spotlight Series isn’t a typical program. However, having the opportunity to create this space has brought her lots of joy.

There are beautiful wallpapers and woodwork on display at the Davenport House. Hodes said that all of the craftsmanship serves as an inspiration to continue to engage with the creators. 

Hodes shared her thoughts on the Artisan’s plans. 

“Working more deeply with the artists and artists and community. We are potentially looking at an exhibition side of things, whether that's in our preservation center or in the house itself. Maybe looking at that kind of element as well where we can have a dialogue between the art and the history and the house. So that's kind of something I would eventually like us to get into,” Hodes said.