high museum of art

high museum of art

Exploring the Legacy and Impact of the High Museum of Art

1. Introduction to the High Museum of Art

Tracing the High’s expanding physical form presents a primer on museum architecture styles and exemplifies the pattern of architecture repeated in Atlanta for decades: natural history museums and cultural repositories, comprised of ever-larger buildings connected like so many little islands. The first High Museum of Art building was constructed just for the collections of Atlanta Art Association in 1926. Designed by Hentz, Reid & Adler, with its broad terrazzo double staircase leading to a columned entrance, great pediment, and grand dome, the building, in its Mediterranean Renaissance inspiration, was a statement in itself, epitomizing both the architectural style of the Roaring 20s and the growing importance of the visual arts to Atlanta residents at large.

The public eagerly anticipated the opening of the re-visioned High Museum of Art in its new building on Peachtree Street. With a $20 million expansion held the following year, the transformed institution was dedicated on October 5, 1983. As the first general art museum in Atlanta, the High Museum of Art is integral to the cultural fabric of the region, symbolizing its evolution, growth, and aspirations. From its inception as a 19th-century collection of curiosities, objects, and works of art exhibited in store windows, horse stables, and other ad hoc situations, the Museum’s physical growth has been both steady and dramatic, paralleling the city’s transformation from a small town to an international crossroads of commerce and culture. The Museum’s purpose has always been to collect, care for, study, exhibit, and interpret works of art of the highest quality and to provide experiences of individual and collective enrichment, enlightenment, and pleasure.

2. Historical Evolution and Architectural Significance

Based on the vision of art expert Mrs. Josephine Herbst, we recognize the march towards the city owning a worthy institution. Throughout the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the ever-growing interest of a group calling itself the Atlanta Museum of Art kept alive the dream of a real museum, even after Matelf Strong had moved on to larger and more heavily-endowed elements of her growing wealth. In 1946, the Atlanta Arts Association was formed and the museum was formally committed to existence. The old Loux house at 1280 Peachtree was purchased as a home, and in a deanta of an architectural makeover, seen even by sheer height, the city had a marble product of its acquisitions.

This former home of the Loux family never really became a palatial work of art; virtually all of the family’s immense resources were used to keep the building as it was, and the collections leached away as the decades went by. Sam Inman, a well-known Atlantan and the head of the Coca-Cola company, took great pride in acquiring part of the considerable collection as the Loux Lakes became financially excessive. Later developments found the Inman descendants owning the collection, and they showed the American impressionist exhibition at the High in 1963.

3. Curatorial Vision and Acquisitions

Although the Board of Trustees had been formed at the end of 1904, the paintings arriving from Candler for the first time made it possible for the Museum to support a more active program. In 1922, the two-week art exhibition held each year in the spring and open to high school seniors was expanded to include high school juniors. Painting reproductions were found and hung for the students, and the founder noted in his diary that they were very interested, asking why they could not be returned during the year since the Museum had classroom space. To support the showing of the loan exhibitions started by Stuppin and Grassi, storage and exhibition racks for loan paintings were built. Directors Otto Retz and Walter Holzhausen included the exhibition of examples from the museum’s collections to illustrate the points made in the loan shows. In the roll-off into the fifties, shows of international scope were mounted yearly.

The importance of the teaching component, present from the outset in the High Museum of Art, was initiated under Jack Stuppin and continued after the appointment, in 1962, of Marco Grassi, curator of education at the High Museum, and his assistant, Robert Simon. Grassi’s interest in art began with the earliest weavings and extended through to 20th-century media. His desire to have children see the objects led him to exhibit them as practice for future loans.

4. Community Engagement and Educational Programs

The High’s mission is to create a different kind of museum that inspires people to dream, learn, and do. Its wide range of programs and services provide that opportunity by engaging and welcoming every community. The High actively seeks very diverse people of all ages to confirm its commitment to getting to know all its constituents. In an ongoing journey of serving a growing and changing region, everyone is always invited to be a part of the exciting and enlightening things that happen at the High.

Accessibility to the arts for underserved constituencies is a cornerstone of the High Museum’s educational activities. Teachers and students in Title I schools in Atlanta benefit from collaborative classroom programs and access to the Museum’s resources. The over 4500 works in the collection and numerous exhibitions provide an ideal foundation for creative learning, personal growth, and social awareness. The High is redefining the museum’s function by engaging substantial numbers of individuals in a broad range of activities—from exhibition openings to Deaf Awareness Days to Monster Family Days and other interactive programs that address a wide audience both inside and outside the physical confines of the Museum.

5. Influence on the Local and Global Art Scene

The Woodruff Arts Center was incorporated in 1968 and legally combined the High Museum of Art, the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta College of Art as well as the Atlanta College of Art buildings and campus to be built as well as to purchase the plot of land for the Symphony Hall. In 1985, the High became a member of the Museums participated in The Museum Loan Network. In 1988, Points of View: Nineteenth Century American Art was chosen to show at the Washington branch of the Smithsonian. The funding came from the TRW Foundation, World’s Fair ’88, the Government of France and of Paris. In 1996, The National Black Arts Festival allowed the museum to exhibit African Americans in the Visual Arts. The museum offered more than 75 art objects to the exhibition, alongside pieces from the Driskell Center, one of the nation’s most too African American research material.

By 1970, the museum had been transformed under the guidance of Gudmund Vigtel, who served as director from 1963 until 1991. Vigtel’s vision for the museum was one with an ambitious mission aimed at bringing some of the best quality art available to the Southeast. In 1983, the museum moved across the street to its current location, re-opening on November 12, with the purchase of Jasper County, Mississippi, by Conrad Wise Chapman being the first piece of art acquired during its tenure. In 1984, Robert W. Woodruff was the first major benefactor who allowed the museum to have a strong foundation on the board.