Museums, Est. 1905
High Museum of Art, located in Atlanta’s Midtown arts and business district, has a comprehensive collection and is one of the largest art museums in the South-East. The century-year-old museum aims to collect, exhibit, interpret and preserve works of art from around the world, meanwhile serving as the primary visual arts resource for the diverse communities of Metropolitan Atlanta. The High Museum had a modest beginning in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association. But it would take another 21 years before the museum could own its own building. The museum was the family residence of Mrs. Joseph M. High, which she donated to the association. The Museum’s present name is dedicated to the donor of its first building. In 1955, the museum moved to a new brick structure near the old High house. The Atlanta Memorial Arts Center was augmented around the structure in 1968. The AMAC was built in memory of 122 Georgia art patrons who were unfortunately killed in a plane crash while on a museum-sponsored European tour in 1962. In order to solve the mounting space constraints, a new 135,000-square-foot facility was constructed in 1983, thereby tripling the available museum space. The new facility was noted for its architectural finesse and had been hailed as “one among the ten best works of American architecture of the 1980s” by the American Architectural Association. But another decade engrossed in exhibitions, community programming, and collection building would again bring back the High to square one, in terms of space scarcity. An expansion of the current facility became a pressing necessity that a new expansion program was conceived and subsequently three new buildings - designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano – was added to the museum in 2005, thereby more than doubling the High Museum's size to 312,000 square feet. For the time being at least, the High has the space to display more of its growing collection, and offer new visitor amenities to address the needs of larger and more diverse audiences. The High Museum of Art’s permanent collections exceed 11,000 in number. The museum treasures include an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American art, various European paintings and decorative art, African American art and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. A part of these collections are displayed in its galleries and exhibition rooms. Apart from enhancing its arts repository, the High devotes a lot of time and energy to engage and educate its regional, national and international audience through innovative educational and exhibition programs. The museum also promotes scholarship through research and publication.
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