Look at the luminous white building ahead, the High Museum of Art, the leading art museum in the Southeast. The museum traces its origins to 1905, when Harriet Wilson High donated her home for use as an art center, but its current identity was established when architect Richard Meier designed the luminous white building that opened in 1983 — a landmark of postmodern design that uses ramps, skylights, and curved walls to create a building as interesting as anything inside it. In 2005, architect Renzo Piano added three new pavilions that nearly tripled the museum's space, creating a campus that anchors Atlanta's Midtown arts district.
The High has a strong collection of American and European art and has brought major traveling exhibitions to Atlanta that might otherwise have bypassed the city. Its presence helped establish the Arts Center node of Peachtree Street as one of the most culturally dense corridors in the South. The museum also holds a significant collection of American folk and self-taught art, including works by Howard Finster, the Georgia visionary artist whose hand-painted folk environments are among the most singular artistic achievements in Southern culture.
Walk the ramps. Let the building work on you.