By Eric Curl
Built in 1915, the two-story house Virginia Jackson Kiah transformed into a community museum in the late 1950s is continuing to deteriorate following the African-American educator and artist’s death in 2001 at age 90.
The “museum was started to reach the masses” Kiah said in this video on YouTube.
Now under the ownership of a trust in Kiah’s name, the house at 505 W. 36th St. in historic Cuyler-Brownville has fallen victim to a more than 16-year-long legal dispute in Chatham County Probate Court.
A Savannah State University anthropology professor, Deborah Johnson-Simon, has been leading the charge to restore the Kiah house. Johnson-Simon established the Friends of Kiah Museum group to raise awareness about the artist and her home.
While Kiah’s own house and museum crumbles, a 19th-century Georgia Railway building named in her honor stands fully restored along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Located at 227 MLK Jr. Boulevard, Kiah Hall is owned Savannah College of Art and Design. Kiah had served on SCAD’s board and also donated most of her art to the university, which held an exhibition of her work in 2009. However, at least one of Kiah’s paintings can be viewed at the Johnson Collection Gallery in Spartenburg, SC.
Read about Kiah and the house in this Savannah Morning News article I wrote in 2017.