'It's where the garden meets art. Literally.'
By Emily King for The Savannahian
SAVANNAH is brimming with artists everywhere you turn. That’s not surprising considering one of the largest art schools in the country is based here. But even aside from the university, local artists line the streets with their work, plant themselves in the park each Saturday for the Forsyth Farmers Market, and decorate gallery windows all over the city with their beautiful creations.
The Photopoint Gallery hosts the Arts on the Coast Annual Exhibit in 2023 entitled ‘Throught the Looking-Garden’
Although the Hostess City is indeed the hub for arts, a community of artists has been quietly growing over the years just outside of Chatham County.
If you drive thirty minutes south, you’ll find yourself in Bryan County, home to Fort Stewart, Pembroke, and Richmond Hill. There, you'll find the Deep South PhotoPoint Gallery, located in Elmgren's Garden Center. Every year for the last 8 the gallery has hosted the Arts On The Coast (AOTC) annual exhibition.
“My husband and I own the gallery/garden center and I happen to be vice president on the board of the Arts On The Coast organization,” says Joy Dunigan, a lifetime resident of the Coastal Empire.
Dunigan is an artist herself; she owns and operates her own advertising and marketing agency working for clients like the Georgia Port Authority and various yacht racing agencies. “They drag me to just some of the most awful places in the world. Sardinia, San Francisco, Miami, Newport. Just terrible places,” jokes Dunigan. “But the nice thing is I get to come back home to a place that I think is as beautiful, if not more beautiful.”
Dunigan graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design and is now a member of the Kobo Gallery located in downtown Savannah. She was recently accepted into the Isle of Hope Art and Music Festival, a highly anticipated annual event.
On the topic of combining her work at PhotoPoint with the AOTC, Dunigan says, “It ends up being a great synergy between knowing what the organization is about and what our goals are, but also giving an opportunity to local artists that may or may not have had experience in a gallery setting. It takes the whole game up a notch.”
AOTC’s memberships are not just limited to Richmond Hill. Members come in from Brunswick and even as far as Bluffton and Beaufort in support of local artists. “It’s an inclusive organization.”
AOTC’s focus is on expanding the community’s awareness of art, not just in Savannah, but the surrounding areas. Dunigan says having an active arts organization that anyone can take part in–operating continuously throughout the year–is important to develop a supportive environment.
This year’s exhibition takes its theme from Lewis Carroll’s classic story of young Alice’s adventures in Wonderland and through the looking glass. “It’s a theme we sort of avoided for some time since the gallery is located inside a garden; we wanted to do something different.”
AOTC decided to give in to it this year, mainly because of the initial reaction people have when coming to the gallery. “When people come to visit the gallery, a lot of them step in the door thinking they're in the garden center. Which they are, but also something else. We tell them that this is where the garden meets art and they have a moment of realization, and then they come in.”
“Through the Looking Garden” will feature many works focused on similar subject matter such as flora and vegetation. “We wanted to do something that would allow the artist’s creativity to roam free so they could come up with something special and maybe approach a subject that they never thought about doing.”
The theme further explores “nonsense,” a word Carroll favors in his classic tales and that Dunigan herself greatly enjoys. AOTC encouraged their participating artists to look for the nonsense things that can be found in gardens and to exploit them in a positive way.
This exhibition, says Dunigan, is a big leap from shows the organization usually does at the Arts on the Coast Gallery, also in Richmond Hill. There are three to four additional shows that happen each year, with no stringent criteria other than a theme. Those events are not juried and are meant to be more relaxing for the community to come together and see the vibrant local arts scene. The PhotoPoint Gallery’s show has higher stakes.
PhotoPoint was purchased by Dunigan and her husband years ago, who began making renovations to the building. “We opened up the front room and I went, 'This would be a perfect place for a local art gallery.' We didn’t have anything like that in Richmond Hill and so we knew there was a need.” The Dunigans got to work on what they thought would be a very interesting project that would work well with the garden center, “And that's kind of how it earned its name. It's where the garden meets art. Literally.”
In 2015, the pair held the first Holiday Artists Collective in the space (not associated with AOTC). The collective features 10-15 artists that are exhibited during a holiday art market, specially curated. “We figured that if the AOTC wanted to take the annual exhibit and open it up a notch in terms of presentation and approach– make it more formal in a gallery setting– why not.”
The annual exhibit and the holiday collective are the two main events PhotoPoint hosts throughout the year. “We call it our art parties,” laughs Dunigan.
Since their initial partnership with Arts on The Coast, the area has seen a massive change. She remembers hearing that Bryan County was the fastest-growing county in the entire state as of last year, at a 50% increase. “It’s continuously growing, and that's probably the other thing that's important about AOTC. You have such a great influx of new people coming in and depending on where they're from, this might have been something that they had [the gallery space] before. Maybe they’d still like the opportunity to have that.” AOTC allows people not only to come out and enjoy the local artists, but to get involved with the organization.
“Through the Looking Garden” only features works created by members of the AOTC. This year’s show will feature four awards: best in show, second place, third place, and honorable mention. All works are entirely original and have never been shown before. Dunigan mentioned an opportunity for the community to vote on which piece they believe should be best in show during opening night, calling it the people’s choice award.
The show is open to the public for viewing pleasure at the Deep South PhotoPoint Gallery, beginning June 22, and running through September 9. Elmgren’s Garden Center will be hosting a garden BBQ the afternoon of Thursday, June 22 to usher in the opening, followed by a reception from 5:30 to 8 p.m.; there will be drinks and small bites available for guests to enjoy at the latter. Many of the artists will be present on opening night to discuss their works and answer questions.
The gallery is located at 30 Cherokee Street in Richmond Hill. For more information visit artsonthecoast.org.