This Midtown icon is one of the largest arts campuses in the U.S. and one of the main cultural centers in the southeast, but most of all it is a symbol of resilience.
You can’t visit Atlanta without seeing the huge and prestigious Woodruff Arts Center. This eye-catching cultural center was built to commemorate the 1962 plane crash of the Air France flight from Orly Airport in Paris, which killed the board and more than 100 members of the Atlanta Art Association at the end of their art tour of Europe.
After the airplane disaster, the Atlanta Arts Alliance sprung up to keep the dream of those who had died alive. Their new Memorial Arts Center, which was the original name of the complex, was mostly funded by Robert W. Woodruff, who had been president of the Coca-Cola Company from 1923 until 1954. The center was formally named after him in 1982. In more recent years, the famous architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano designed the expansions.
Today, the Woodruff Arts Center includes the Alliance Theatreand the High Museum of Art and the Atlanta Symphony Hall of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. This trio of not-for-profit organizations, more often referred to as “the Alliance, the High, and the ASO,” is also the largest arts educator in Georgia.
A fitting place to start your tour of the campus is the bronze Rodin statue L’Ombre (The Shade), which was presented to Atlanta by France during the opening ceremony in 1968.
Pay a visit to The High, which has more than 15,000 artworks in its permanent collection, including a growing African American collection.
In the Alliance Theatre, you won’t believe your eyes when you see the architecturally stunning Coca-Cola stage. The walls and ceilings of this performance space are lined with bent oak strips sawn from fallen trees, making it a work of art in itself.
As you approach the Atlanta Symphony Hall, you are dwarfed by a huge artwork called World Events by British sculptor Tony Cragg.
The Woodruff Arts Center is in Midtown Atlanta and is easy to get to on the MARTA train line. Disembark at the Art Center Station on West Peachtree Street. The museum is closed on Mondays. Children younger than 6 years of age can enter for free. Food trucks and fine dining restaurants are part of the huge venue.
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