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Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
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The Arts

Professor, guest artists challenge stereotypes in ‘Identity’

SCAD, Savannah, Zig Jackson, photography, (Dis)placed Identity: The Globalization of Native Americans Exhibition with Andrea Robbins and Max Becher

SCAD photography professor Zig Jackson examines ironic perceptions of American Indians in “Indian Photographing Tourist Photographing Indian, Camera in Face.”

By Ally Hughes
Published: Friday, September 7, 2007

Savannah College of Art and Design photography professor Zig Jackson, whose American Indian name is Rising Buffalo, has partnered with collaborative photographers Andrea Robbins and Max Becher to focus on representations of Native Americans in contemporary culture.

“(Dis)placed Identity: The Globalization of Native Americans,” showing at Red Gallery, 201 E. Broughton St., through Oct. 15, examines Native Americans as objects of curiosity and the embodiment of stereotypes of the mythical, wizened and brutal native.

Jackson, who is of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara descent, was raised on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. He said he has long felt that art is an integral part of his culture, and his perspective is unique in the contemporary United States.

“In one sense, it is intensely personal; yet, in another — by virtue of my background and native roots, as part of an indigenous group struggling for autonomy in the shadow of a dominant one — my work cannot escape an implicit politicism,” he said. “Dealing with a culture in transition and its fight to survive within the confines of a foreign social structure and economic framework, my imagery explores the inherent ironies engendered by the confrontation of two opposing cultures and belief systems — including contemporary issues of identity and representation, displacement, land rights, indigenous sovereignty, and the ambiguity of cultural boundaries.”

Conversely, Robbins and Becher’s external viewpoint focuses on the German fascination with American Indians. Concerning their 1998 “German Indians” series, Robbins and Becher said German fascists identified with 19th-century writer Karl May’s depiction of the Indian as noble savage and as the victim of a modern, corrupt, overly intellectual world. After World War II, in East Germany, American Indian fan clubs increased because they provided people with a legal opportunity to gather in large numbers, and May’s anti-American, anticapitalist messages coincided with Eastern Bloc rhetoric. In West Germany, the influx of American popular culture expanded the imagery of the American West but conflicted with May’s sympathetic descriptions.

“As an Indian artist, I feel a responsibility to deconstruct the pervasive myths and misconceptions about Native Americans, in order to reveal more accurate and informed representations,” said Jackson. “I use my art as a means of de-mythologizing my own history and breaking down the prevailing stereotypes, social constructs, paternalistic attitudes, and romanticized images perpetuated by popular media and folklore.”