The drawing is done in red and black chalk, with lead white and brown ink wash. It is Michelangelo's Cartonetto of Madonna and Child, made between 1522 and 1526 and held in the collection of the Casa Buonarroti in Florence. For the next few months it is part of an exhibition at the Jepson Center on West York Street, drawn from the historic collections of the artist's own family.
Michelangelo's Women: Images of Female Power and Divinity from the Casa Buonarroti opened October 9, 2026 and closes January 24, 2027. The posted adult ticket is $30. Residents don't have to pay that, though. Telfair and Live Oak Public Libraries have set up several cheaper ways in, and each one has a catch: a single date, a single pass per library branch, or a number of visits you have to plan around. Your price depends on which catch fits your fall.
What Came Over From Florence
Telfair Museums organized the exhibition with the Casa Buonarroti Firenze. The guest curator is Dr. Gary Radke. It uses Michelangelo's drawings, poetry, and letters, and Telfair says some of them have never been shown in the United States before.
Telfair's exhibition page says no book or exhibition has ever been devoted only to the women in Michelangelo's work, even though women appear everywhere in it, from the Sistine Chapel to the Pietà. The show argues that his muscular, long-limbed women were meant as heroic figures. Two real women from his life and legacy get their own space. Vittoria Colonna was his patron and muse. Rosina Vendramin, a 19th-century preservationist, helped keep his legacy intact.
The Sistine Chapel ceiling can't travel, of course. WTOC reported that the show uses original prints and Vatican Museums-approved high-resolution images of ceiling details instead. Radke told the station he hopes visitors will look closely at the material from Michelangelo's own hand.
"He saw intelligence. He saw hard work." Gary Radke, guest curator, speaking to WTOC about how Michelangelo viewed women
That close-up kind of looking takes time, often more than one visit. That's part of why the admission options matter.
The Price on the Board
These are the rates Telfair posts on its hours and admission page. That page was published in March 2026, so confirm the numbers before you go.
| Ticket | Posted price |
|---|---|
| Adult | $30 |
| Senior 65+ or active military with ID | $27 |
| Student 13 to 25 with ID | $20 |
| Child 6 to 12 | $10 |
| Child 5 and under | Free |
There is no separate fee for the exhibition. A general ticket covers every new exhibition at the Jepson and gives you unlimited entry to all three Telfair sites for seven days. That's the first thing that changes the math. One $30 ticket bought on a Tuesday gets you a first walk-through, a return trip the next weekend for the drawings you rushed past, and a stop at the Telfair Academy or the Owens-Thomas House on the same pass.
For a family of two adults and two kids aged 6 to 12, the posted rates add up to $80 for one week. That's the number to compare against everything below.
Four Cheaper Ways In, and the Catch With Each
1. Free Family Day, Saturday, October 24
This is the only day in the run when the Jepson is free for anyone who can show local residency. The Michelangelo's Women Free Family Day runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with hands-on activities and demonstrations tied to the exhibition.
"Local" covers more than Chatham County. Telfair extends free Jepson admission on Free Family Days to residents of Chatham, Effingham, Bryan, Liberty, Bulloch, Beaufort, and Jasper counties. The front desk accepts any of the following:
- A Georgia driver's license or state ID with a local address and zip code
- A voter registration card or utility bill with a local address and zip code
- A current college ID from SCAD, Georgia Southern Armstrong, Savannah State, Georgia Tech, or Savannah Tech
The catch is that it's one Saturday, and the program is built around the exhibition. If that date doesn't work for your family, you'll need one of the other options.
2. The Live Oak Public Libraries Family Pass
With a Live Oak Public Libraries card, you can check out a Telfair Museums Family Pass for free. It's valid for seven days and admits up to eight people per visit. It covers the Jepson Center, the Telfair Children's Art Museum, the Telfair Academy, and the exhibitions.
For the family of four above, that saves the full $80. For a group of eight, the savings are bigger.
The catch is supply. Each library location has one pass, given out first come, first served, and it can be renewed once. The Michelangelo show runs about fifteen weeks, so there are only so many seven-day checkouts per branch. Ask at a branch you don't usually visit and you may find a pass on the shelf.
3. Museums for All
Households with a SNAP card pay $3 per adult. Children 17 and under get in free, for up to six visitors per card. Because it's a general admission rate, it should come with the same seven-day, three-site access as a regular ticket. This option has no single date and no limited supply, so it's the steadiest of the four for the households that qualify.
4. A Membership, if the Fall Calendar Pulls You Back
A Telfair membership includes free admission to all three sites for a year. The listed entry tiers are student $25, discounted individual $50, individual $60, dual $80, and family $100.
Here's how that plays out. An individual membership costs $60, the same as two adult tickets. Then add the companion programming. A nonmember adult who sees the exhibition, attends the November lecture, and goes to the December concert would pay $30, $20, and $20, for $70 total. An individual member pays $60 for the membership, nothing for the lecture, and $10 for the concert, which also comes to $70. At that point the two are even. Any visit after that, whether it's a return trip in January or a spring exhibition, costs a member nothing.
The Calendar Through January
Most people's choice of admission route will come down to these dates. Here's the public programming tied to the exhibition between now and closing:
| Date | Event | Cost for nonmembers |
|---|---|---|
| Mondays, Oct. 19 to Nov. 23, 2 to 4:30 p.m. | Michelangelo drawing workshop, materials included | $195, or $175 for members |
| Thursday, Nov. 12, 6 to 7 p.m. | Dr. Emily Fenichel lecture on Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna | $20, free for members, registration recommended |
| Friday, Dec. 11, 6 to 7:30 p.m. | The Savannah Consort performs music from Michelangelo's era | $20, or $10 for members |
| Sunday, Jan. 24, 2027 | Exhibition closes | Regular admission |
The Fenichel lecture fits well with the Colonna section of the galleries, since Colonna is the patron and muse the exhibition introduces. The Savannah Consort concert puts sound to the period on a Friday evening in December. Telfair posted the drawing workshop in July, so confirm its dates and price before you sign up.
Members-only events are also on the calendar, including two with Radke. The Free Family Day remains the main event aimed at residents in general.
Hours to Plan Around
The Jepson is at 207 W. York St. Posted hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays. The holiday closures that fall during the run are Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve have shortened hours, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is also on the closure list.
Given those closures and short days, the last week of December has fewer open hours than usual. If you plan to use a seven-day ticket or a library pass to bring visiting relatives, start the clock on a week without a holiday closure so you get all seven days.
The exhibition page also links to a guide on the free Bloomberg Connects app. That's useful for a second visit, when you want to slow down at the drawings instead of the reproductions.
If you're new to Savannah, or relocating here on PCS orders, and you want help planning your first few months, including which local cards, passes, and memberships are worth setting up early, my calendar is open. Lachandra Bodison offers a free consultation, and we can start with what your household wants close by.
