Woodruff Arts Center
The Woodruff Arts Center is the largest arts center in the Southeast as well as one of the largest in the nation. The Woodruff is unique in that it combines four visual and performing arts divisions on one campus as one not-for-profit organization. Opening in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art, Young Audiences and the 14th Street Playhouse.
- Alliance Theatre
Now in its 39th season, Atlanta’s nationally acclaimed Alliance Theatre, recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award®, is the leading professional resident theatre of the Southeast, creating the powerful experience of shared theatre for diverse people on two stages for youth and adult audiences. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Susan V. Booth and Managing Director Thomas Pechar, the Alliance Theatre is a national theatre with a local address, reaching out annually to almost 200,000 patrons and members of the community. Known for its high artistic standards and national role in creating significant theatrical works, the Alliance launched three Tony Award-winning hits to Broadway: Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida and Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo. And, in a rare event for a regional theatre, it originated the national tour of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The theatre has premiered more than 50 works including adaptations of Carson McCullers’ The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky. Further evidence of the Alliance’s commitment to new work is found in its nationally recognized Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, a cutting-edge program introducing student playwrights to professional networks while producing the world premiere of the winning student’s work. The Alliance Theatre also offers extensive education and outreach programs such as the Institute for Educators and the Collision Project for high school students. The Alliance continuously brings Atlanta the finest talent and finest art—proving once again that the Alliance is where great theatre lives. 404.733.4650 or www.alliancetheatre.org
The Alliance Theatre is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia, which also includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, High Museum of Art, Young Audiences and the 14th Street Playhouse.
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Now in its 63rd season, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is a leading American orchestra well known for the excellence of its live performances, the creative theater of many of its concert presentations, its renowned choruses, as well as for its longtime association with Telarc, and its impressive list of Grammy Award-winning recordings. The foremost cultural organization in the southeastern U.S., the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra serves as a cornerstone for artistic development and music education in the region. Under the creative partnership of Music Director Robert Spano and Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles since September 2001, the ASO performs more than 200 concerts each year to a combined audience of more than a half million through a full schedule of performances, including educational and neighborhood concerts. In May 2008 those numbers will increase many more times with the opening of the ASO’s new 12,000 amphitheater at Encore Park. Emerging from the partnership is Robert Spano’s Atlanta School of Composers, created to address the growing number of audience members who approach contemporary music with great skepticism. Since the inception of the Atlanta School of Composers, the ASO’s performances of new works have resulted in a growing acceptance among Atlanta audiences. The orchestra has been recognized as one of the leaders and supporters of American contemporary music and most recently received the 2007 award for “Strongest Commitment to New American Music” from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.”
- High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the southeastern United States. With more than 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection, the High Museum of Art has an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American and decorative art; significant holdings of European paintings; a growing collection of African American art; and burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, photography and African art. The High is also dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the only major museum in North America to have a curatorial department specifically devoted to the field of folk and self-taught art. The High’s Media Arts department produces acclaimed annual film series and festivals of foreign, independent and classic cinema. In November 2005, the High opened three new buildings by architect Renzo Piano that more than doubled the Museum’s size, creating a vibrant “village for the arts” at the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown Atlanta.
- Young Audiences
Young Audiences, Woodruff Arts Center (YAWAC) is a leading provider of arts-in-education programming in the Southeast. Part of the prestigious 31 chapter national Young Audiences organization, YAWAC brings the power of live arts experiences to Georgia students from pre-school to high school. From a small organization of nine artists in 1983, YAWAC is celebrating 25 years of service and has grown into a force in arts education, comprising more than 65 professional artists and ensembles that reach more than one million students each year. We fulfill our mission – to improve and enrich the lives and learning of children through high quality arts experience – by providing a dazzling and culturally diverse array of curriculum-based performances, workshops and residencies in music, dance, theatre, literary and visual arts. For more information, please visit www.yawac.org.
