Established | 1968 |
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Location | 1280 Peachtree Street Atlanta |
Coordinates | 33°47′22″N 84°23′07″W / 33.7895382°N 84.3852137°W |
President | Virginia Hepner |
Public transit access | Arts Center station |
Website | www |
Woodruff Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center located in Atlanta, Georgia. The center houses three not-for-profit arts divisions on one campus. Opened in 1968, the Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the High Museum of Art.
In 1962, Atlanta suffered an unprecedented loss when an airplane, the Chateau de Sully, carrying the leaders of Atlanta’s arts and civic community, crashed at Orly Airport in Paris. As the city grieved, it came together and used the devastating loss as a catalyst for the arts and built a fitting memorial to these victims. This led to the creation of the Atlanta Arts Alliance.
The Memorial Arts Center, as the Woodruff was originally known, opened October 5, 1968. The building was designed by Atlanta architect, Joe Amisano. It was renamed the Woodruff Arts Center in 1982 to honor its greatest benefactor, Robert W. Woodruff. The art center also included the Atlanta College of Art, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the High Museum of Art. All three entities were combined into one corporation. The Alliance Theatre was added in 1970 as the fourth division of the Woodruff and thirty-five years later in 2005, a fifth division was added when Young Audiences joined the center. This addition ensures that the Woodruff’s PreK-12 programs now reach more than one million children annually, the largest base of any arts center in the country.
The Woodruff campus expanded in 1983 with the addition of the Richard Meier-designed High Museum of Art building. This building made Meier the youngest Pritzker Prize-winning architect at that time.