The 2017 Savannah Black Heritage Festival will bring the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum traveling exhibit to the Beach Institute African American Heritage Cultural Center, 502 East Harris Street, from February 4-8, noon- 5 p.m.

The items from National Great Blacks in Wax Museum will feature life-size figures of Eubie Blake, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin.

On Saturday, February 4, the exhibit will be featured as the culmination to a special Echoes Walking Tour of the historic Beach Institute Neighborhood with sites significant to African American history in Savannah. For reservations and information about the tour, contact Johnny Brown at 912-398-2785.

The formal opening reception for the exhibition will be on Sunday, February 5, 3 p.m., at the Beach Institute. Joanne Martin, Ph.D., founder and director of the museum, will be present. Group tours are encouraged and can be arranged by calling 912-335-8868. More about the museum in Baltimore can be found at www.greatblacksinwax.org/index.html.

This exhibit is generously supported by Southwest Airlines, the Official Sponsor of the National Great Blacks in Wax Traveling Museum and sponsored in part by the Arts Ashore Legacy Fund, c/o The Savannah Community Foundation, Inc., and the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation.

“Focused on the Future; Acknowledging Echoes from the Past” is the central theme of the 2017 Savannah Black Heritage Festival scheduled for February 1 - 26, 2017.  The 2017 festival will be the 18th one produced by Savannah State University and the 28th sponsored by the City of Savannah. All festival events and activities are free of admission and open to the public.