Virginia Jackson Kiah

Virginia West Jackson was born in East St. Louis, Illinois, to Keiffer Albert Jackson and Lillie May Carroll Jackson.[2]

Kiah graduated from the Pennsylvania Museum School of Art with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1931. She followed this up with a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1950.[3]

In 1951,[3] Kiah and her husband of nineteen years, Calvin Lycurgus Kiah, moved to Savannah, Georgia.[4] Calvin was a professor at Georgia State University and Savannah State College during his career.[4] In 1959, they opened the first floor of their home at 505 West 36th Street, in the Cuyler-Brownsville neighborhood, as the Kiah Museum,[4] a teaching facility.[1][5][6] The home was built in 1915.[7]

Kiah Hall, Savannah, Georgia

In 1992, Savannah College of Art and Design acquired the deteriorating former Central of Georgia Railroad headquarters building and began renovations. A year later, the building was dedicated to Kiah, a member of SCAD's board of trustees between 1987 and 1997.[8]

Kiah received an honorary doctorate from SCAD in 1986.[9]

In failing health, she moved into a nursing home in 1990.[7]

In 1993, she donated much of her art to the university, which held an exhibition of her work in 2009.[1]

Kiah died in a Savannah nursing home in 2001, aged 90,[1] having survived her husband by seven years. She was interred beside him at Hillcrest Abbey on Wheaton Street in Savannah on December 30.[2]

In 2022, Historic Savannah Foundation purchased her former home for $60,000, saving it from demolition due to its ruinous state, having lay vacant for 32 years. They will sell it to a party interested only in restoring the house, a project estimated to cost around $500,000.[7]

• "Hungry for History? Finding Virginia Jackson Kiah - A Notable Savannah Woman" - City of Savannah, YouTube, 2021