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A history rich in art and architecture.

From a stately home on Peachtree Street to its current award-winning buildings in a spectacular setting, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta has grown to become the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States with its renowned collection of classic and contemporary art and renowned architecture by Richard Meier and Renzo Piano.

The High's Early Years

Originally founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, the High Museum of Art received its first permanent home in 1926 when Mrs. Joseph M. High donated her family's residence on Peachtree Street. In 1955, the Museum moved to a new brick structure adjacent to the original High house. When the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center opened in 1968, the High Museum of Art was at its center.

A New Museum By Richard Meier

In 1979, Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff offered a $7.5 million challenge grant for a new facility that would triple the High Museum of Art's space to 135,000 square feet. After raising $20 million, the High Museum of Art opened its new Richard Meier designed home in 1983. Among its many awards, the American Institute of Architects deemed the Meier design one of the "ten best works of American architecture in the 1980s."

The stunning, porcelain-enameled building is the ideal setting for the High Museum of Art's collection of over 11,000 pieces of art. A towering atrium soars to four interior levels, with the galleries moving from 18th and 19th-century collections near the ground floor to the cutting edge of contemporary art on the upper levels.