Lectures

From visiting scholars to special exhibition lecture series and seminars, the High aims to offer a variety of lecture-related programs. Many lectures are free with museum admission and free for members. Scroll below for a listing of the upcoming lectures.

Masterpiece of the Month:  Every first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m., the Masterpiece of the Month lecture series provides a closer look at a special work of art.

Discussion & Book-Signing:The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation
Thursday, June 12, 7 p.m.
Hill Auditorium

Free with reserved ticket; tickets to the Museum sold separately

Hank Klibanoff, managing editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Doris Derby, photographer, educator, and Civil Rights activist; and Brett Gadsden, Assistant Professor of African American Studies at Emory University will discuss how the nation's press came to recognize the importance of the civil rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the 20th century.

Panel Discussion: Memories from the Movement
Saturday, June 28, 2 p.m.
Rich Theatre

Free with reserved ticket; tickets to the Museum sold separately

Join Civil Rights heroes including Congressman John Lewis, Ambassador Andrew Young, activist Dorothy Cotton, introduced by High Curator Julian Cox for an afternoon of remembrances and dialogue around the contributions of the courageous champions of justice who struggled to make equality a reality for all. The panelists will reflect on their experiences in the Civil Rights movement in light of the High’s current exhibition Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968. The discussion will be moderated by Alexis Scott, journalist and publisher of the Atlanta Daily World, the city's first black-owned daily newspaper.

Lecture: Building the New Acropolis Museum
Thursday, June 5, 7 p.m.
Rich Theatre

Free with reserved ticket; Museum tickets sold separately

In conjunction with the Consulate of Greece in Atlanta, this presentation will provide a full and exciting picture of the recently completed New Acropolis Museum. Dr. Dimitrios Pandermalis, President of the New Acropolis Museum, will provide an overview of the history and development of this key national public project in Greece and an understanding of how the design is integrated with the demands of the exhibition program and the Museum’s environment. Architect Bernard Tschumi will address the architectural challenges that the project presented and the solutions that were developed as a response.

Louvre Lecture: Houdon: Sculptor of the King and the Enlightenment
Saturday, June 7, 2 p.m.
Hill Auditorium
Free with Museum admission and free to members

Louvre curator Guilhem Scherf will provide an in-depth look at this important sculptor whose artistic achievements include a bust believed by George Washington’s family and contemporaries to be the most lifelike depiction of him ever made. Houdon’s bust of George Washington later became the basis for the depiction of Washington on the United States quarter.