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Culture

  Atlanta, Culture

In the days of its antebellum greatness, Atlanta was a cultural centre with big aspirations. The major cultural venue is the Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree Street (tel: (404) 733 5000; ). This glass and stone modern architectural showpiece was erected by the then head of Coca‐Cola, Donald Woodruff, as a non‐profit‐making service to the community. It commemorates a 1962 plane crash at Orly, Paris, which killed 106 Atlanta citizens and one of the buildings is still known as the Memorial Arts Building. The Center, now spread around a campus, hosts a continuing series of cultural events and is home to the High Museum of Art (see Key Attractions). It also contains three theatres, exhibition galleries and is home to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Alliance Theatre Company, the 14th Street Playhouse, as well as children’s and Afro‐American groups. The Center For Puppetry Arts (see Key Attractions) is only a few blocks away.

A website (www.accessatlanta.com) lists the latest events information, while Ticketmaster (tel: (404) 249 6400; ) is the agency for all cultural bookings.

Music: The celebrated Atlanta Symphony Orchestra () was founded in the 1940s but only became full time in 1968. Fame struck when they played at President Carter’s inaugural concert; they now record with Telearc and have toured Europe and the Americas extensively. The programmes they offer tend to be safe and unadventurous classical‐pop, with at least one distinctly non‐classical concert each month. The orchestra performs either at the Atlanta Symphony Hall (tel: (404) 733 4900) in the Woodruff Arts Center, or at the Chastain Park Ampitheatre, 135 West Wieuca Road (tel: (404) 733 4955).

Theatre: The Art Deco Islamic extravaganza Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree Street (tel: (404) 881 2100; ), known as the ‘fabulous Fox’, is a National Historic Landmark and an attraction in its own right, with a star‐studded foyer, fantastic balconies and exotic gilding. It is also home to the Atlanta Opera (tel: (404) 881 8801 or (800) 356 7372; ) and stages ballet, concerts and Broadway productions of hit musicals. The Alliance Theater Company () is based at the Woodruff Arts Center and performs modern American drama with an occasional European piece. The 14th Street Playhouse, also part of the Woodruff Arts Center but based at 173 14th Street (tel: (404) 876 6341), is an umbrella space that showcases the work of many small theatre companies.

The NewAmerican Shakespeare Tavern, 499 Peachtree Street (tel: (404) 874 5299; ), pays homage to the Bard with a Globe‐like theatre experience. Lastly, the Theatre in the Square, 11 Whitlock Avenue, in Marietta (tel: (770) 422 8369; ), is housed in an old cotton warehouse and produces plays that reflect local history and feature local writers. It is only 20 minutes’ drive from Atlanta and worth a visit.

Dance: The Atlanta Ballet, 1400 West Peachtree Street NW (tel: (404) 873 5811 or 892 3303 (box office); ), the oldest continuously operating ballet company in the USA, performs during autumn, winter and spring. Performances are held at the Fox Theatre (see Theatre above) and the Robert Ferst Center For The Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, 349 Ferst Drive NW (tel: (404) 894 2787; ).

Film: Multi‐screen movie houses cater to the American film‐going public. They all screen Hollywood releases and the international distributors’ list. The 1920s Fox Theatre hosts the Coca‐Cola Summer Film Festival with both classic and contemporary hits on the biggest screen in town. The Arabian palace decor and fantasy lighting adds to the enjoyment and the restored organ provides an introduction to the show. The film programme offered by the Woodruff Arts Center includes a remarkable range of foreign films, while the Goethe‐Institute, Colony Square (tel: (404) 892 2388; ), shows German films every Wednesday evening in their auditorium.

Atlanta has been the location for various low‐budget films, including many directed by Burt Reynolds, such as Sharky’s Machine (1981).

Cultural events: The former Mayor of Atlanta, Bill Campbell, encouraged two music festivals of note. For a week at the end of August, during the Montreux Atlanta Music Festival, a medley of music to appeal to all tastes fills Atlanta’s parks and open spaces. Principal venues are the Centennial Olympic Park and Piedmont Park; admission is free. The Atlanta Jazz Festival, running for ten days in May, aims to be a little more upmarket, attracting some of the biggest names in jazz. The programme plays in venues all around the city.

Every year from June to November is the Georgia Shakespeare Festival (tel: (404) 264 0020; ); during July and August, productions are held in the landscaped grounds of Oglethorpe University where the audience can also picnic prior to the performance.

Literary Notes
Margaret Mitchell, author of the Pulitzer Prize‐winning masterpiece about the antebellum and post‐Civil War South, Gone With The Wind (1936), is the city’s favourite literary child. The book has sold more hardcover copies in the USA than any book other than the Bible. Tom Wolfe recently moved decidedly upmarket and set A Man in Full (1998) among the rich and powerful bankers and real‐estate magnates of the suburb of Buckhead in Atlanta. It reveals a seamy underside to their upper‐crust lives and the city very nearly banned the author from ever setting foot in Atlanta again. More lightheartedly, The Cat Who Robbed A Bank, a mystery by Lillian Jackson Braun, stars a wealthy Atlanta auction buyer.

In the non‐fiction arena, the Southern Architecture Foundation has published the Architecture of James Means, a designer of some of the local stately homes.