By Eric Curl
March 1, 2021 Update – Following the publication of the column below, SCAD provided some information, emphasis on “some”, about their Kiah collection along with photos of her art. You can read about it and see the images here.
Feb. 20. 2021 – After about four years of writing about Virginia Jackson Kiah and her two-decade old estate case, I have been vexed by many questions surrounding the seemingly never-ending legal dispute. But there is one question that has been perplexingly difficult to get an answer to.
The Savannah College of Art and Design has repeatedly ignored requests to provide information about the university’s collection of Kiah’s art work.
The issue stems back to in 2017, when I first started reporting on the estate case as a Savannah Morning News reporter (I left the paper in 2019 and am now a lowly blogger). After weeks of attempts to line up an interview and get some photos of the collection, all I could obtain was a brief statement from the university claiming Kiah had given the university her art work as a gift in 1993 – about 9 years before her death at age 90. SCAD’s spokesperson did also note that the university held an exhibit of her art work in 2009, titled Virginia Kiah from Art School to Art Educator: 30 Years of Portraits, but they refused to provide information about the size of the collection, where the art had been since the exhibit or whether it was accessible to the public.
In fact, it is curiously hard to find any information on SCAD’s website about Kiah, who served on the university’s Board of Trustees from 1987 to 1997. Even the web page devoted to the 19th-century Georgia Railway building SCAD named after her fails to mention who the building was named for, unlike pages for other buildings such as Crites Hall, Haymans Hall, Keys Hall
More recently, a SCAD spokesperson said on Feb. 9 she would look into it after I again reached out to the university for information regarding Kiah’s art work – with hopes of setting up an interview and getting some photos of the collection. The university through the spokesperson again declined to provide any information.
Kiah specialized in painting portraits, often of well known civil rights, political and religious leaders. Her art education includes degrees from such institutions as the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, University of Pennsylvania and NY International Art Student’s League.
Her work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, churches and government buildings across the country, including the US Capitol. It remains unclear whether any of Kiah’s art work is displayed in Kiah Hall or at any other SCAD buildings. It would be nice to find out. I believe growing interest in Kiah’s legacy warrants this, but SCAD apparently feels differently. If you would like to see and learn about Kiah’s art, perhaps you could let the university know.
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