By Jon CarrOne of the goals of Dad’s Garage is to produce new work that you would never see anywhere else. I’ve been an improviser at Dad’s Garage for more than a decade, and the marketing director for four years—and what I love about working here is our company’s commitment to producing the work we […]
Category: Arts & Culture Seen
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The Genius vs Moments of Brilliance
By Fabian Williams (AKA “Occasional Superstar”)While scrolling down my Instagram feed, I come across at least two posts a day claiming someone is a genius. Any and everybody: Albert Einstein. Prince. Steve Jobs. Most recently—Kanye West, via Jimmy Kimmel Live, has been telling the world he’s a genius. I thought to myself, genius! By doing […]
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Fabricators, Funders, and Fixers
(Featured photo provided by Midtown Alliance)By Matt TerrellArt is not created in a vacuum. There is perhaps no more malicious myth than that of the lone wolf artistic genius, squirreled away is some studio far away from civilization, sending their wares into the world. It’s true that some of the great artists of the 20th century, […]
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This Summer, Get Your Art from the Great Outdoors
By Ariel Thilenius, Communications Manager for The WoodruffLast week’s post on street art by Matt Terrell got me thinking: what other ways can Atlantans experience art outdoors this summer? And, more importantly, why should they?In the infamous Georgia heat, there’s nothing better than cooling off in a museum or gallery surrounded by your favorite artists. […]
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Public Art Can Be More Than Beautiful
By Matthew Terrell Public art can do so much more than be beautiful. In San Francisco, for example, public art tends to be radical and political; imagine a mural educating heroin users on always using clean needles, and calling on the city to provide more social services for drug users. A short drive up to […]
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An Added Benefit of Increasing Diversity
Do what’s right; millennials will follow. By Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director of the High Museum of Art, Rand Suffolk Sitting on Peachtree Street in the heart of Midtown, the High is fortunate to belong to an incredibly diverse community. Our role in this city is so much more than storing and displaying […]
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“How can theater artists help communities tap their rich cultural assets for economic and civic development?”
By Adam Fristoe, Co-Artistic Director at Out of Hand TheaterThe answers to this question, originally posed by Roadside Theater and Imagining America in their Performing our Future Initivative, can develop sustainable revenue streams for artists and arts organizations, drive cultural and economic development in Atlanta, and create community relationships that make art not only relevant to the community, but essential. Since […]
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Five Reasons to Care about the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra… Even if You Don’t Attend
By Jennifer Barlament, Executive Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1. Every time the Atlanta Symphony wins a GRAMMY Award (we’ve won 28), we insert our city—by name—into the consciousness of people around the globe. And we do it in ways that reach beyond the music. Our GRAMMY Awards reach past artistic achievement to reflect the […]
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Opening Doors for Arts Leaders
By Doug Shipman, President and CEO of The Woodruff Arts CenterI had the opportunity to join the annual LINK trip organized by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) to San Diego last week. It was a chance to visit another city with a group of regional leaders from Atlanta, including two other arts leaders: Anthony Rodriguez […]
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Interning at Dad’s Garage: File organization and agendas were never so hilarious!
By Daisy Gould On a Thursday afternoon in mid-March, I was sitting in a windowless office in the back of Dad’s Garage Theatre, making a crown of bacon. Or, I was trying to make a crown of bacon, and struggling superbly at it. Bacon, surprisingly, is an extremely difficult medium to work with because of […]
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4th ANNUAL EDUCATION LUNCHEON: Advancing Literacy through the Arts (Part 2)
Part 2 of our interview between Event Co-Chair Ann Cramer and Honoree Comer Yates Be sure to read Part 1 here Ann Cramer: How do you prepare professional development for adults to value it and then do it? Comer Yates: I guess it’s around just having a value system in a school. You start with the […]
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4th ANNUAL EDUCATION LUNCHEON: Advancing Literacy through the Arts
Interview between Event Co-Chair Ann Cramer and Honoree Comer Yates Be sure to read part 2 of this interview here Ann Cramer: Comer, you were recently honored at The Woodruff Arts Center’s Education Luncheon. Tell us how you feel the arts advance literacy, either at the Atlanta Speech School or in a larger context. Comer Yates: […]
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Grow up Great
Featured photo by Alphonso Whitfield By Kristen Buckley, Naserian Foundation Early Childhood Program Manager at the Alliance Theatre Imagine you’re a four year old. You’re learning to negotiate the complicated social rules of school, how to move around in your rapidly growing body, and how to fit all of your young-person excitement for learning about the […]
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Instagram-Worthy: Sharing Art in the Age of the Museum Selfie
By Ariel Thilenius of The Woodruff Arts Center Fellow museum-goers, there’s no more denying it: the art museum selfie is here to stay. Its ubiquity has even required museums to proactively manage its presence. The next time you visit an art museum, note the ways in which selfies are encouraged—are you invited to participate in […]
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A Note to the Entrepreneurial Hustle of Artists and Businesses.
By John Welker of Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre I have been on a wild ride lately. Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre (TMBT) has only been fully operating since this past August when four dancers, Tara Lee, Heath Gill, Christian Clark, and Rachel Van Buskirk convinced me to take an entrepreneurial leap of faith with them. Somewhat […]
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An Open Letter to “Struggling Artists”
By Brian Clowdus STOP MAKING EXCUSES! I don’t know about y’all, but I am sick and tired of hearing artists complain, while finding every excuse in the book as to why they are not fulfilled or successful… “My headshots aren’t right.” “They never hire anyone outside of their favorite regulars.” “I have reached my bandwidth.” […]
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What Does World Class Mean?
By Kevin Gillese World Class: If there is one phrase that gets bandied around quite often in Atlanta, particularly in the arts and culture community, it’s this one. Sometimes it feels like Atlantans are so obsessed with becoming “world class” that they don’t see how much of our city is already there. At its most […]
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Artwashing: Capitalism and Art
By Matthew TerrellWe’ve all heard the term “selling out” – sacrificing artistic purity for the sake of profit. There’s a perennial distrust amongst the arts community of business people, and the effect capitalism has on art. The idea is that caring about profit makes an artist and their work less noble, and destroys their creative […]
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How to talk when we don’t know how to talk
By Susan Booth, Jennings Hertz Artistic Director for the Alliance Theatre As I suspect many of you were, I was raised with sharp dictates of what constituted polite conversation. Whether due to faulty memory or puritanical parenting, I largely only remember the thou shalt nots. No religion. No politics. No oversharing of personal information. (That […]
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Remembrance As Resistance: Art Effecting Change in Changing Communities
By visual artist, Charmaine MinniefieldAn elder once told me, “Your existence is your resistance.” I am an artist activist. My work ranges from acrylic on canvas to large scale murals in communities around the metro area. My public art intentionally pushes back against erasure, misrepresentation and marginalization. I work to preserve the Black narrative (both […]
