High on Art

In Atlanta for business this week, I optioned for the Marriott hotel close to midtown but not stuck in between office buildings. The hotel offered the option with my room, free tickets to the High Museum or free tickets to their buffet. I was able to get both and with some time to kill between my last meeting and a dinner event, I decided to walk down to the High Museum.

The High Museum’s permanent collection isn’t teeming with Screams, Starry Nights and Monas but it does offer up lesser known gems from Monet and Joseph Stella, and a nice collection of Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Dorwin Teague pieces. They are currently partnered with the Lourve Museum (Paris) and sharing pieces from The Ancient World (Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Eastern artifacts). Unfortunately I didn’t get a full view of all the works and my timing was short but there were a few interesting pieces and I swear I recognized a few from my initial visit to the Louve years ago.

In addition to the art, they were starting the first in a series of music performance and DJs every Thursday night through the winter – much like the Guggenheim’s First Fridays events. I hung around for almost and hour and barely anyone showed up. I was quite unimpressed both by the lack of promotional planning for the event and the selection of music for the showing. It might have something to do with a lack of a bar but I had heard there was going to be one. I hope they fix this scenario as this, like the NYC event, could be a great focus for late night art and music showcase.