Over the weekend, The High Museum of Art Atlanta shut down pieces of Peachtree Street to celebrate its centennial anniversary with the local arts community and the city of Atlanta. Hundreds filled the streets to dance, indulge, and engage with organized activations from The Atlanta Hawks, The Alliance Theatre, The Trap Music Museum, and more.
“We’ve been so blessed with people throughout that entire history that have been supportive of this place [The High] with not just financial resources, but with their time and expertise,” said Rand Suffolk, Director of The High Museum of Art.
“Everyone has been trying to ensure that The High is positioned to ducktail our strengths with the community’s needs,” he added.
The Atlanta arts community gathers on Peachtree Street during The High Museum of Art’s Centennial Block Party on Sunday, October 18th. (photo credit JannahB)
The High Museum was founded in 1926 when Harriet “Hattie” High donated her Peachtree Street home to establish a true home for the arts, “bowered in lovely green trees and shrubs”, in a bustling southern metropolis.
On October 19, 1926, The Atlanta Constitution wrote it in as such and where the permanent collections will live and be a gem for the children of Atlanta to cherish.
Learn more about the largest art space in the Southeast online at high.org.
Subscribe to The Bold Opinion Media for more arts, culture and community related topics in and around the metro Atlanta area.
On Monday , Georgia Governor Brian Kemp declared a State of Emergency due to the rise in market prices everywhere, including the fuel pump.
The temporary suspension begins today, Tuesday, September 29th and will extend through October 29th, freeing up 33.3 cents per gallon for gasoline and 37.3 cents per gallon for diesel.
“Over the past several years, with the help of our partners in the General Assembly, we’ve been able to give billions of dollars in relief to hardworking Georgians,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “We’ve remained committed to helping them and our small businesses fight through tough times and that’s why I’m taking this action today to give further relief,” he states in a press release.
The current average price for a gallon of regular gas in Georgia is $4.19 and $6.24 for a follow of diesel.
This is the third time this year that Gov. Kemp has ordered a fuel tax suspension for Georgians and according to Capitol Beat, previous motor fuel tax suspensions cost the state approximately $200 million per month.
Subscribe to The Bold Opinion Media for more arts, culture and community related topics in and around the metro Atlanta area.
Amy Sherald, a Columbus native, has chosen the High Museum of Art Atlanta as the final stop of her four-city “American Sublime” tour. As her largest display of works ranging throughout her career, this exhibition features several globally recognized pieces like of Breonna Taylor and Michelle Obama, plus rarely-viewed early works of grey-toned figures.
Painting the epitome of American life, Sherald approached this body of work with a reflective lens on the homeland typically observed through a Caucasian-American veil. Her monochromatic style of choice, grisaille, strips her subjects of bias while captured in simple moments of their daily lives.
“While Amy and her work have been present in Atlanta for many years, this will be the first opportunity to engage with the full measure of her practice,” said the High’s Director Rand Suffolk. “We are really proud to share that with Atlanta while celebrating an artist whose work so strongly resonated with our community,” he added.
American Core
For years, Sherald has analyzed American culture and who it chooses to project or represent it. With the use of grisaille, a paint technique that only uses grays, blacks, and whites, she bluntly challenges that representation. Her practice places African American figures in traditionally American places or activities; at work, by the pool, or on the playground. She approaches the thought of who or what people get to tell those stories in these simple moments. Sherald’s iconographies resurface the diversity of a true America.
Planes, Rockets, and the Spaces in Between, 2018
Kingdom, 2022
As mentioned, the exhibition contemporarily features both former First Lady, Michelle Obama and Miss Breonna Taylor’s portraits, not only as a way to further cement them into American history, but also to aureate their inner simplicity.
“I’m also thinking about all the young people–particularly girls and girls of color–who in years ahead will come to this place and they will look up and they will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the wall of this great American institution. I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives, because I was one of those girls,” she said.
Circling back to Atlanta as the final stop for her exhibition, “American Sublime” debut in 2024 by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), then moved to the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art before making its way to Sherald’s home state of Georgia.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018
“Bringing American Sublime to the High Museum is exciting because it is where my story began as a young art student in Columbus, Georgia,” said the artist. “As a former Atlantan, I’m looking forward to returning to celebrate the cultural and artistic power that is born in this city,” she added.
Visitors can view “American Sublime” at The High Museum of Art from May 15th – September 27th of this year and can find more information for their visit online.
Image Credits Header: Kevin Bulluck
Portrait images are compliments of The High Museum of Art Atlanta
Subscribe to The Bold Opinion Media for more arts and culture deep dives in and around the metro Atlanta area.
