Tania June Sammons

Visions of The Prophet
Telfair Academy, Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia, 2012

Telfair Museums' owns the largest collection of artwork by Kahlil Gibran in America. The collection was given to the museum in the mid-20th century by Gibran's friend and patron Mary Haskell Minis. Mary funded Kahlil's art training in Paris, set him up in a studio in New York City, and edited all his works written in English, including his most famous book The Prophet. Telfair's collection spans the artist’s career from his first exhibition at photographer Fred Holland Day’s studio in Boston in 1904 to works created during the last years of his life, and includes several works illustrated in his books. Because the collection is primarily comprised of works on paper, the museum spaces out displays to preserve the art from light exposure.

As curator of the Kahlil Gibran collection, I curated exhibitions, and researched, wrote, and lectured about the work, the artist, and his patron. I also met with researchers, and coordinated loans to other museums, including The Institut Du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Detroit Institute of Arts in Michigan, and the Huntington Museum of Art in West Virginia.Visions of The Prophet was one of several exhibitions I curated featuring Kahlil Gibran's artwork. My work on this subject began with a research project in 1993, and led to To Discover Beauty: The Art of Kahlil Gibran, an exhibition I initiated and co-curated with Pamela D. King in 1994. That presentation marked the first time the collection had been on view in decades, and was documented with a brochure. In 2010, I curated The Art of Kahlil Gibran at the Telfair's Jepson Center, an exhibition presented in coordination with the publication of a book with the same title. The Art of Kahlil Gibran fully documents the museum's collection, and includes two essays by Suheil Bushrui, Kahlil Gibran biographer, and former George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland, and myself. 

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I continue to research and write about Kahlil Gibran, and his art and writing. Presently, I am writing a biography about his friend and patron Mary Haskell Minis.

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Photo credit: David J. Kaminsky