A Century in the Making: The High Museum Turns 100 — and Atlanta Showed Up

Some institutions celebrate a centennial with a gala. The High Museum of Art celebrated its 100th by shutting down Peachtree Street and throwing a party for the city that built it.

The free Centennial Block Party on October 18 turned the museum's Midtown front lawn into a festival: live performances, interactive art activities, families on the grass, a drumline, and remarks from Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, museum Director Rand Suffolk, and board member Killer Mike. It was, by every account, less a museum event than a neighborhood reunion — the kind of day where the line between institution and community disappears, which is exactly the point of a museum turning 100 in the first place.

The story starts in October 1926, when Harriet "Hattie" High donated her Peachtree Street residence to the city, establishing the museum's first permanent home. The High Museum and School of Art opened in that house, building on the Atlanta Art Association, which dated to 1905. From a donated house to a Richard Meier building in 1983 to a Renzo Piano expansion in 2005, the museum grew the way Atlanta grew: outward, ambitiously, and in public.

Today the High holds more than 20,000 works and anchors the Midtown arts district. But the centennial story worth telling is not the square footage. It is who the museum now serves. Under Suffolk's leadership, the share of visitors of color rose from 15 percent to 55 percent, alongside more exhibitions featuring women artists, artists of color, and LGBTQ+ artists. A museum that once reflected a narrow slice of Atlanta now looks a lot more like Atlanta itself — and that shift, more than any building, is why the block party felt like a celebration rather than a ceremony.

The centennial programming makes the same argument in other forms. The David C. Driskell Prize — honoring contributions to African American art and art history, with past recipients including Amy Sherald, Rashid Johnson, and Mark Bradford — goes in 2026 to Cheryl Finley of Spelman College. The museum is offering free admission to all Atlanta Public Schools for K-12 field trips throughout the 2026–2027 school year, and will produce a book featuring 100 large-scale reproductions of landmark works from its collection. A century in, the High is investing in the next generation of visitors the way Hattie High invested in the first: by opening the door and leaving it open.

"It’s been a century in the making," Suffolk told block-party attendees, thanking the community, members, staff, and centennial sponsor Invesco. Dickens, recalling his own childhood school field trips to the High, put it more plainly: "At a time like this, when it can feel like forces are pulling us all apart, the High Museum is still a place for us to gather together."

That is the lesson for Atlanta's creatives, and it is a practical one. Institutions do not survive 100 years by being impressive. They survive by being useful — by becoming the place where a kid on a field trip, a family on a Saturday, and an artist looking for their next idea can all walk in the same door. The High's second century starts with a Halloween party, "A Haunting at 100," on October 30, and a walking tour of its architectural history on October 29. The centennial year is not a look back. It is an invitation.

So go. Not just to the party — to the galleries, on a regular Tuesday, with no occasion at all. Institutions stay alive because people keep showing up for them. Atlanta just proved it still does.

What was your first memory inside the High — a field trip, a date, a piece you still think about? Tell us below.