These 5 Atlanta arts venues will open new or renovated spaces in 2026, 2027
From opera houses to art museums, entertainment arenas to concert venues, Atlanta has a sizable list of new and renovated venues poised to open in the next two years.
“The renovations and new developments underway across the city reinforce Atlanta’s role as one of the country’s premier destinations for arts and entertainment,” said William Pate, president and CEO of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Here are five of the city’s most anticipated openings in 2026 and 2027.
Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia has broken ground on its new home, a 26,306-square-foot facility at the Goat Farm Arts Center set to open in mid-2026.
The 12-acre arts hub located in West Midtown includes artist studios, residences, performance venues and outdoor sculptures in a 19th-century industrial setting once home to E. Van Winkle Gin and Machine Works.
The hub is located within a 5-mile radius of the High Museum and several educational institutions, including Georgia Tech, Spelman College and SCAD.
“We couldn’t ask for a better location in terms of where it’s located in the city,” Annette Cone-Skelton, MOCA GA’s president, CEO and director, told Arts ATL.
Having amassed a permanent collection of roughly 1,600 artworks and a sizable archives collection, MOCA GA, founded in 2000, has outgrown its rented spaces — first on Peachtree Street and now on Bennett Street.
In 2019, using funds donated by the late Elkin Goddard Alston, MOCA GA signed a contract to purchase a 1.05-acre site at the Goat Farm. In December 2023, MOCA GA closed on the land.
Significant gifts followed, including $2 million from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, $2 million from the city of Atlanta and numerous other contributions that helped meet the fundraising goal of $16.4 million.
The new building is designed by Atlanta-based architectural group Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects and matches the Goat Farm’s aesthetic with a boxy building made of weathered metal and industrial-chic beams. A long promenade ramp built with a trestle-like configuration gives nod to Atlanta’s railroad history.
The facility will feature a reading room and library on the first floor, five gallery spaces on the second floor and a cafe that will open out to a sculpture garden.
Molly Blank Center for Opera
The Atlanta Opera will get a new permanent home along the Atlanta Beltline in Buckhead in 2027 when the historic Bobby Jones Clubhouse and its surrounding area are transformed into the Molly Blank Center for Opera.
The new 56,000-square-foot complex, slated to be completed in the summer, will include almost five acres of green space, a 200-seat recital hall (called Rosemary Hall), theater venue, film studio, educational areas, rehearsal space and administrative offices.
Project renderings show how the 84-year-old historic clubhouse along Woodward Way, which is owned by the state and will be leased to the opera, will be restored and refaced to blend into the new construction. The design, created by Atlanta-based architecture firm Post Loyal, features glassy, rectangular, modern architecture.
“A state-of-the-art facility in this park setting will be a source of creativity for our local and visiting musicians,” said Tomer Zvulun, the Atlanta Opera’s general and artistic director, in a news release. “It is perfectly positioned to help us serve audiences and collaborators in our beautiful city and beyond.”
The Atlanta Opera’s main-stage productions will continue to take place at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, while the new recital hall will host a variety of smaller events, such as classical performances, jazz ensembles, lectures and spoken word artists.
The Molly Blank Center for Opera is named in honor of the mother of Arthur Blank, co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons. She was known for her philanthropic spirit and dedication to the arts. The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation contributed $27.5 million to the opera’s comprehensive fundraising campaign.
“My mother, an artist herself, believed in the power of the arts to bring joy and healing,” said Arthur Blank in a press release. “My brother Michael and I … know she would be honored to see her name alongside one of the country’s top opera companies.”
Woodruff Arts Center
On Jan. 28, Woodruff Arts Center will open the new Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families, a 300-seat theater dedicated to family and education programming for the Alliance Theatre and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
“We’ve got a lot of demand for (family programming),” said Hala Moddelmog, Woodruff Arts Center CEO. “It’s one of the areas where demand has outstripped our ability to take care of it. We have gorgeous spaces for adult programming, but we needed more spaces for youth and family.”
Attached to the Goizueta Stage is the sleek Reid Family Lobby, where high ceilings, geometric architectural details and a golden-hued color palette create an elegant and modern aesthetic.
In one corner of the lobby will be the new PNC PlaySpace, funded by PNC Foundation, a philanthropic organization of PNC Bank. The free, experiential learning center will allow children to play, create and engage with themed programming six days a week. The first theme will be “Bossa Nova Baby,” a Brazilian rainforest.
The transformations are part of a grander vision funded by a $67 million capital campaign launched in August 2024.
To celebrate the theater’s grand opening, the Alliance Theatre Company will stage “The Underground Rep”— three family productions in repertory Jan. 31-July 5.
Inspired by the excavation required to construct the new stage, the underground theme was selected for the stage’s first programs. The productions include “Into the Burrow: A Peter Rabbit Tale,” “Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience” and “The Great Ant Sleepover.”
Centennial Yards
The $5 billion, mixed-use Centennial Yards megaproject spanning 50 acres in downtown Atlanta, adjacent to State Farm Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, includes two new entertainment venues: a 5,300-seat concert venue by Live Nation and an immersive theater called Cosm.
Cosm is a three-level, 70,000-square-foot, planetarium-style venue for shared reality experiences. The structure features an 87-foot, 12K-resolution, LED dome that immerses audiences in virtual sports and entertainment experiences.
Sports fans can be on the sidelines of the College Football Playoff, sit courtside at NBA games, inside the Octagon at Ultimate Fighting Championships or on the pitch at the biggest Premier League matches.
Arts lovers can enjoy seeing Cirque du Soleil’s production “O” and attend other immersive art experiences created by members of Cosm’s Studios Creator Program (including new media artist Nancy Baker Cahill, filmmaker Guy Reid, DJ and artist Chris Holmes and composer Ricardo Romaneiro).
Cosm currently has similar theaters in Los Angeles and Dallas; Atlanta will be the concept’s third location. The company aims to open its Atlanta venue in 2026 before the World Cup games.
“Cosm’s experience is unparalleled, using its shared reality technology to provide guests with front-row access to global events,” said Brian McGowan, president of Centennial Yards, in a press release. “With existing, world-class sports venues and the addition of Cosm, we believe Centennial Yards will become the center of gravity for entertainment in Atlanta.”
Another cornerstone of Centennial Yards’ entertainment district, a Live Nation concert venue, is slated to open in 2027.
In May 2025, Centennial Yards Company announced the long-term lease with Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster and is the world’s leading entertainment company.
“Atlanta has long been a cornerstone of American music and live entertainment,” said Jordan Zachary, president of global venues at Live Nation, in a press release. “This venue fills a key gap in the local entertainment landscape and we believe it will further strengthen the city’s position as a cultural and economic powerhouse.”
Fernbank Museum
Undergoing a $27 million renovation funded by a capital campaign launched in 2022, Fernbank Museum is getting its biggest upgrade since opening in 1992.
Opening in summer 2026 on the third floor, the new Orkin Discovery Zone will be a permanent tactile exhibit focusing on how science, nature and human culture affect each other. Real specimens, animal observation terrariums, pullout curiosity cabinets and a build-a-bug activity will be highlights.
The zone will be connected to the museum’s STEAM lab and will border a set of windows previously off-limits to visitors that overlook WildWoods, the museum’s 10-acre outdoor nature area, which opened in 2016 and was the museum’s last major renovation.
On the second floor, Fernbank will replace “A Walk Through Time in Georgia” with the new permanent exhibition “Changing Earth” slated to open by the end of 2027. The exhibition will focus on the planet’s changing elements over time. Guests can learn about tectonic plates, changing oceans, volcanic activity and weather.
Next to “Changing Earth,” a new 3,000-square-foot gallery will open for temporary, rotating exhibits.
On the garden level, an oval-shaped room next to the theater entrance will get a makeover to become “Our Place in the Cosmos,” featuring a starry-night sky media display and text panels about the universe.
Accessibility improvements will be made in 2027, including the addition of a new ADA-compliant elevator and ADA-accessible doors from the garden level to WildWoods.
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