LOOKING FORWARD
THE NEXT 100 YEARS
F or the High, the Centennial is as much about looking forward as looking back.
The museum enters its second century with newly reinstalled American and African art galleries, significant Centennial acquisitions and more than 200 additional works joining its holdings across photography, contemporary art and contemporary design. New collecting priorities include quilts by Black artists, twentieth-century African art, queer photography and fashion through the Lauren Amos Fashion Project.
The celebration is also extending beyond the museum walls. Centennial partnerships with MARTA, the Atlanta Beltline, the Atlanta Hawks, Havertys, UPS and Delta Air Lines are bringing art into the wider city, while Atlanta Public Schools students will receive free admission for K – 12 field trips throughout the 2026 – 2027 school year.
A new visual identity marks the occasion as well, created to carry the High into its next hundred years with a more contemporary, connected expression. Its new positioning is simple:“ The High is Atlanta’ s art museum.”
UPS Second Sunday, Free admission for all visitors and special family-friendly programming
That idea brings the Centennial story full circle. In 1926, Hattie High gave Atlanta a home for art. One hundred years later, the High still sees itself as exactly that: a home for the arts, for Atlanta and for all who visit.
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Opening Doors
Hale Woodruff, Atlanta University artist and professor
I n 1931, Atlanta University artist and professor Hale Woodruff entered the segregated High Museum. He later recalled the museum’ s Black janitor telling him he was the first Black visitor he had ever seen enter through the front door. Woodruff replied,“ Well, I won’ t be the last one.”
Three decades later, amid Atlanta’ s Civil Rights era, the Atlanta Art Association formally desegregated. In October 1962, its executive committee unanimously resolved that its museums and exhibitions would remain open to the public without restriction based on race, creed or color. The Atlanta School of Art admitted its first Black students the following January.
That evolution continued in 2005 with the establishment of the David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History, the first national award of its kind.