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At 100, Atlanta’s High Museum of Art Is Considering What It Means to Be a 21st Century Museum

Director Rand Suffolk's decade-long project has involved transforming the museum from an admired landmark into an essential part of everyday Atlantans' lives.

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta has a reputation for attracting diverse audiences and for its commitment to inclusivity and accessibility. Founded in 1926, the institution has been a constant through Atlanta’s transformation from a regional city into a global hub and has helped shape its cultural evolution. Atlanta is recognized today as the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement, a global capital of hip-hop and the “Hollywood of the South,” as well as an increasingly vibrant art center. In the 100 years since the High’s founding, society has changed dramatically, and so has the role museums are expected to play within it. Today, there is greater emphasis on participation, accountability and close dialogue with the communities they serve—an approach the museum anticipated early on.

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As the museum celebrates its centenary, director Rand Suffolk spoke with Observer about the institution’s evolution from a place primarily dedicated to collecting and displaying art into one that has redefined its purpose, acquisition strategy, programming and communication around its relationship with the communities it serves.

The High’s origins trace back to the Atlanta Art Association, established in 1905. It acquired its first permanent home in 1926, when Harriet “Hattie” High donated her family’s residence on Peachtree Street. The museum then expanded alongside Atlanta’s emergence as the principal economic and cultural center of the American Southeast. The opening of Richard Meier’s striking white building in 1983 gave the institution an internationally recognizable architectural identity. Renzo Piano’s 2005 expansion substantially increased its capacity and fully integrated the High into what is today the Woodruff Arts Center campus, part of a cultural district that has become the heart of the city’s creative life.

In a century, the High’s mission has never fundamentally changed, even as the context in which it operates has evolved rapidly, according to Suffolk. “All nonprofits should exist to make the world a better place. The way in which the High Museum of Art does it—or other art museums do it—is via engagement with complex visual culture,” he said. “In other words, it’s our responsibility to present the finest examples of artistic achievement we can get our hands on, make them look beautiful when they’re installed, and then hopefully facilitate a dialogue that’s going to encourage people to see their place in the world differently or to look at themselves differently.”

The High’s present reputation for community engagement is closely tied to Suffolk’s appointment in 2015. From the beginning, his approach challenged the traditional museum assumption that an institution’s primary responsibility is to preserve and present exceptional objects, while the public is expected to adapt to its established conventions. Instead, the High has increasingly treated the composition of its audience as an institutional responsibility in its own right. This has meant reconsidering pricing, programming, the artists represented in exhibitions and the ways visitors encounter the permanent collection.

It comes down to community- and context-oriented thinking, Suffolk has found. Between his first interview for the director’s role and his first board meeting, a period of about eight or nine months, he conducted what he describes as “a completely unscientific survey” of roughly 60 people, from trustees and museum staff to Uber drivers, hotel-bar patrons and people he met at the supermarket. The question was simple but revealing of the public’s actual perception of the........

© Observer