History of the High

The museum received its first permanent home in 1926, when Harriet “Hattie” High donated her family’s residence on Peachtree Street, and the High Museum of Art was born. On October 16, 1926, The Atlanta Constitution wrote, “Atlanta’s new home of culture and the arts sits like a gem of truth, bowered in lovely green trees and shrubs, with the gentle rising sweep of the lawn in front, on Peachtree Street between 15th and 16th. Formerly the High home it was given to the city through the art association by Mrs. Joseph Madison High, to be a perpetual home of art in this southern metropolis and to house the permanent collection which Atlanta will gather together for the inspiration and training of her gifted sons and daughters of the generations yet to come.”

The High received its first major art donation in 1949 from J. J. Haverty’s family. Haverty was an early museum patron and leader, and at the time, Atlanta’s foremost art collector. Haverty’s daughter bequeathed twenty-five pieces including significant American paintings by William Merritt Chase, Henry Ossawa Tanner, John Twachtman, and Childe Hassam, as well as a select group of sculptures. This formative gift created a strong base for subsequent additions of American art to the museum’s collection. 

The Women’s Committee of the Atlanta Art Association organized a tour of European art capitals in 1962. On the return flight from Orly Field in Paris, the plane crashed at takeoff and one hundred and twenty-two people perished of whom one hundred and six were Atlantans; only two flight attendants survived. At that time, it was history’s worst single-plane disaster. The tragedy devastated Atlanta and took the lives of many of the city’s most dedicated art supporters. The French government presented a gift of Rodin’s The Shade in memory of the Orly victims. Today the sculpture stands as a memorial outside the High’s Stent Family Wing. 

The museum made its first African acquisition in 1953, a D’mba figure from Guinea, and the collection grew substantially over several decades due to the generous support of patrons Fred and Rita Richman. In 1971, moved by the Orly crash, the Richman’s gifted their collection of sub-Saharan African art with around two hundred fifty objects. The New York–based collectors had a small sewing plant in Atlanta on University Avenue and were inspired by their employees to do something for Atlanta after the tragic loss of so many of its arts community in 1962. That initial gift was followed by an even larger one in 2001 and the endowment of the curatorial position in African art. 

In 1979, Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff offered a $7.5 million challenge grant for a new facility that would triple the High’s space to 135,000 square feet. The High subsequently raised $20 million and in 1983 opened its new building (now named the Stent Family Wing). Pritzker Prize–winning architect Richard Meier designed the building, which has won design awards including a 1991 citation from the American Institute of Architects as one of the “ten best works of American architecture of the 1980s.”  

In 1981, in anticipation of the museum’s growth, Atlanta-based collector and photographer Lucinda Weil Bunnen donated what would become the core of the High’s photography holdings, though she had already inspired the High to begin collecting photography in 1973. The museum’s dedicated photography galleries are named for Mrs. Bunnen in honor of her formative work in building this key segment of the collection. Today the photography collection numbers over eight thousand objects. 

The High’s Rings exhibition was the centerpiece of the cultural events surrounding the summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Inspired by the symbolism of the five Olympic rings, the show was guest curated by J. Carter Brown Jr., director emeritus of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.  

The 125 objects in the show touched on nearly every major world culture, from ancient Egypt and Central America forward, and the works of art came from many of the greatest collection around the world—Prado in Madrid, Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Vatican Museum, Palace Museum in Beijing, Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and Tokyo National Museum. The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg permitted Matisse’s mural-size Dance (1909–1910) to leave Russia, and Edvard Munch’s Scream came from the Munch Museum in Oslo. 

Launched in 2006, Louvre Atlanta—the High’s three-year partnership with the Musée du Louvre in Paris—welcomed over 1.3 million visitors to the museum for six exhibitions that brought a combined 493 treasures from the Louvre’s collection to Atlanta. Masterworks from all eight of the Louvre’s curatorial departments traveled to the High, including rare works of art by Raphael, Titian, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Velázquez. The exhibitions attracted visitors from all fifty states, including nearly 140,000 students.  

Established by the High in 2005, the David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History recognizes field-defining contributions to African American art by some of the leading scholars and artists from around the country. Named in honor of the late artist and scholar David C. Driskell, this prize is the first in the country to recognize the importance of African American art.  

The annual Driskell Prize Gala supports the David C. Driskell African American Art Acquisition Restricted and Endowment Funds, which are used to support the acquisition of African American art as well as exhibitions and education programs presenting African American artwork.

In collaboration with artists and designers, the High develops interactive and immersive installations for the campus’ central Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza. These installations, which are freely accessible to the public, aim to make the campus more open and welcoming to the community. To date, the piazza installations include Mi Casa, Your Casa (2014) and Los Trompos (2015), both designed by Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena; Tiovivo (2016) and Merry Go Zoo (2017), designed by Jaime Hayon; Sonic Playground (2018), designed by Yuri Suzuki; Murmuration (2020), designed by SO – IL; and Outside the Lines (2021) designed by Bryony Roberts Studio. 

In October 2018 the High reinstalled its collection galleries to create a whole new experience for visitors. With old favorites, new acquisitions, and previously stored artworks now on view, the redesigned collections embrace growth and diversity while providing dynamic and engaging experiences. 

The reinstallation covers all seven of the High’s curatorial departments and highlights the collection’s growth since 2005 and key strengths while enhancing the visitor experience and improving accessibility throughout the High’s facilities. The museum worked with internationally renowned architectural firm Selldorf Architects to complete all aspects of collection gallery design and renovation. Concurrent with the collection reinstallation, the museum doubled its footprint and completed a redesign of the Greene Family Learning Gallery in collaboration with Roto design firm. The High has had a dedicated space for its youngest visitors since 1968.