Community Partnerships and Civic Engagement
Drawing from our Core Values and Methodologies, the High Museum of Art’s Education department builds strategic relationships with communities across Atlanta. Our goal is to steward our resources to position the High as a thought partner and community asset. This work includes engaging with individuals—artists, educators, activists, spiritual and civic leaders—and with community-engaged organizations, both for profit and nonprofit. We develop interactive programs that connect voices, perspectives, and themes in our collections and exhibitions with the needs and interests of our stakeholders, community partners, and Atlantans broadly.
In addition to these more visible modes of community outreach, the High incorporates guidance and feedback from community members across our operations, with the goal of creating a more inclusive, welcoming, and accessible museum for everyone in Atlanta.
The Latin American Association (LAA) empowers Latinos to adapt, integrate, and thrive. The High partnered with the LAA to host Coffee Hour, an immersive experience centered on a particular topic for guests to practice English and Spanish. November’s Coffee Hour was LAA’s first Coffee Hour at the High. The event was held in the Anne Cox Chambers Wing and included a tour of the exhibition Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature. We welcomed over eighty participants, many who were first-time guests to the museum.
Project Healthy Grandparents (PHG) was founded at Georgia State University in 1995 and is housed within the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions. With a mission to improve the health and well-being of families in which grandparents are raising their grandchildren in parent-absent homes, PHG provides comprehensive health and support services and improved access to community resources. The High has collaborated with PHG since 2021 to provide meaningful art engagement programs for grandparents and their grandchildren, including studio art classes, family fun days, and support group workshops. Such programs provide an opportunity for reflection, self-expression, respite, and social connection.
For more than thirty years, Senior Services North Fulton (SSNF) has been at the forefront of efforts to eliminate senior hunger and provide additional care and support to the region’s growing population of older adults. In addition to the Meals on Wheels program, SSNF provides transportation to medical appointments and quality–of–life trips for homebound seniors and operates seven senior centers that enrich the lives of hundreds of local seniors each week. Since 2021, the High has offered off–site studio workshops to five North Fulton senior centers. Each month, High Museum of Art teaching artists facilitate art–making projects inspired by works on view in the museum’s galleries. These programs promote social engagement, creativity, and enjoyment among this audience.
On October 8, 2023, Little Amal, a twelve-foot puppet of a Syrian refugee girl, visited the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta. On the Sifly Piazza, the High’s Teen Team joined the Alliance Theatre’s Teen Ensemble to welcome Amal with a special performance. We Have a Dream was presented by the Alliance Theatre and the High Museum of Art, in partnership with the Global Village Project and Refuge Coffee Co. Amal Walks Across America is produced by The Walk Productions in association with Handspring Puppet Company.
ARTS InCommunity partners with arts and cultural communities to provide individuals with diverse abilities access and inclusion in their communities through the arts. Although most of the organizations that visit the High through ARTS InCommunity use self-guided visits, a few groups, including school groups, are designated for facilitated tours. The High is proud to have docents specifically trained to offer tours to youth with developmental disabilities, and these docents currently lead select ARTS InCommunity tours.
The mission of Tapestry Public Charter School is to offer an inclusive, individualized learning environment that is academically engaging, both for neurotypical students and those on the autism spectrum, and to create a positive school culture that empowers all students to take possession of their innate talents and become creative builders of their futures. The High partnered with Tapestry for the 2023–2024 school year as part of our work with the Kennedy Center VSA: Museum Access for Kids Program. We have been working with faculty at Tapestry to provide training to our staff for how to best provide educational programming for students with disabilities. Next year, we will welcome each grade level to visit the museum and receive a tour and workshop that promotes accessible art experiences.