Telfair Museums
Kate Lacivita is an accomplished professional with extensive experience in the arts and museum sectors. Currently serving as a Historical Interpreter at Telfair Museums since January 2023, Kate is also the Founder, Creative Director, and Editor of Polyptych Magazine. In June 2024, involvement as a MESDA 2024 Summer Institute Fellow at Old Salem Museums & Gardens was undertaken. Previous roles include Project Management Intern at Monument Lab and Senior Director of a Chick-fil-A Franchise, where responsibilities spanned from November 2018 to December 2022. Kate has additional experience as a Marketing Director in the same franchise and as a Keyholder at The Vitamin Shoppe from July 2016 to November 2018, along with various positions in customer service at Whole Foods Market and Gardner-Webb University. Currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Art History, Criticism, and Conservation at Savannah College of Art and Design, Kate previously earned a Bachelor of Arts in the same field from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2018.
Telfair Museums
Telfair Museums is the oldest public art museum in the Southeast. The legacy of one visionary Savannahian, it was founded in 1883 through the bequest of prominent local philanthropist Mary Telfair-who left her home and its furnishings to the Georgia Historical Society to be opened as a museum. Today, Telfair Museums consists of three unique buildings: the Telfair Academy and the Owens-Thomas House-two National Historic Landmark sites built in the early nineteenth century-and the contemporary Jepson Center. Each of the museum’s three buildings houses a collection corresponding to the era in which it was built. Designed in the Regency style by English architect William Jay, the Telfair Academy houses nineteenth- and twentieth-century American and European art. The Owens-Thomas House, also designed by William Jay but notably different in style, is considered one of the finest examples of English Regency architecture in the country. In addition to the historic house museum-featuring decorative art ranging from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, the site includes rare intact urban slave quarters and a lovely parterre garden. Rounding out the Telfair’s trio of landmark buildings, the Jepson Center is devoted to the art of today. Together, these three unique buildings and three distinct collections bridge three centuries of art and architecture, illustrating the continuum of art and history in Savannah.