Arts groups seek exposure in Atlanta PlanIt Pavilion

Center for Puppetry Arts

An Atlanta cultural institution that opened in 1978, the Center for Puppetry Arts welcomes children and adults to its Midtown facilities to experience the wonder and art of puppetry through performances, interactive workshops and museum exhibits. It extends these efforts through educational outreach and Distance Learning programs. With more than 1,280 performances, films, workshops and museum tours this year, the puppetry center is, like “Peter Rabbit,” one of its fall presentations, always hopping.

CORE

This Decatur-based professional dance organization is entering its 27th season of creating, performing and presenting contemporary dance under the artistic direction of founder Sue Schroeder. Its CORE Performance Company, made up of individual artists, performs new choreography that evolves through experimentation, improvisation and collaborations with artists from different mediums. It opens its season Sept. 13-14 at the Decatur High School Performing Arts Center.

Eyedrum

Established in 1998, Eyedrum presents a wide range of contemporary art, music, performance and new media in its gallery space at the Fuse Arts Center downtown and throughout Atlanta. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation recently awarded Eyedrum a three-year gift of $30,000 through its SEED Grant Program. During the Decatur Book Festival, Eyedrum is organizing the eXperimental Writer Asylum, hosted at the Seen Gallery (near the corner of Church and Sycamore streets) and featuring panel discussions, readings, poetry and the collective creation of an artist book. Coming Sept. 13-Oct. 12 to its Fuse space: “We Love You Long Time,” featuring performance, installation and 2D works by Asian female artists.

50 Shades of Black

50 Shades of Black is a multifaceted Atlanta-based platform for creating an interactive global dialogue around issues of race, skin tone, sexuality and identity. The project includes contributions from people all over the world — scholarly essays, personal narratives, poems, photographs, paintings and other artistic contributions. It has produced a free downloadable e-book, “50 Shades of Black, Vol. 1” (available via iTunes) and the coffee-table book “50 Shades of Black: The Conversation.”

Full Radius Dance

Comprised of professional dancers with and without physical disabilities, this Atlanta-based modern dance company believes that inclusion in the performing arts, and dance in particular, is capable of creating power, beauty and innovation. The troupe, which has been selected to perform during Art on the BeltLine this fall (dates to be announced), maintains a busy performance schedule in Atlanta, regionally, nationally and internationally. Full Radius Dance also is committed to education and outreach, conveying its unique artistic message through classes, workshops, lecture demonstrations and disability awareness programs.

Georgia Museum of Art

Founded in 1945, the Georgia Museum of Art, located on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, is the state’s official museum of art. With a permanent collection of more than 9,000 objects, the museum boasts strengths in American painting, works on paper, Southern decorative arts and works by self-taught artists, plus a growing emphasis on works by African-American artists. It both hosts traveling exhibitions and organizes its own touring shows. A robust schedule of events include lectures, films, programming for families, late-night art parties, receptions, symposiums and more, almost all of which are free, as is admission. The museum also serves as its own imprint, publishing two to four scholarly books a year. Its fall exhibits open with “Exuberance of Meaning: The Art Patronage of Catherine the Great,” Sept. 21-Jan. 5, 2014, featuring more than 30 works of art and books, most commissioned by Catherine the Great.

gloATL

Founded by choreographer Lauri Stallings in 2009, glo specializes in highly physical contemporary performance. The company’s movement blends classical elements with the complexity and groove of today’s urban culture. Over its four years, glo has given 124 “physical installations” of 45 unique creations from New York to Miami’s Art Basel. Stallings is a 2009 Benois de la Danse and 2012 Rome Prize nominee, and glo became a Robert Rauschenberg SEED Project grant recipient this year. Among fall activities, it will launch the second season of four-part Tanz Farm performance anthology with Israeli artists Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor (in collaboration with Goat Farm Arts Center; dates to be announced).

Indie Craft Experience

The Indie Craft Experience (ICE) was founded in 2005 to provide indie crafters an opportunity to sell and promote their creations in Atlanta. ICE is organized by Atlanta natives Christy Petterson and Shannon Mulkey, two local crafters who were inspired by indie craft markets in Chicago and Austin, Texas. In addition to craft markets, ICE also organizes a vintage market called Salvage (Sept. 14 at Ambient Plus Studio), an annual Pop-Up Shop during the holiday season and an online shop called the Curatorial. (www.ambientplusstudio.com).

Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia

Since opening in 2002, MOCA GA has showcased the best of contemporary visual art by Georgia’s emerging and established artists, averaging 10 challenging exhibitions each year. The Buckhead institution also encourages engagement and exchange between the artists it features and the community it serves through regularly scheduled artist talks and other public programming. It is home to an 800-plus-work permanent collection that is a chronicle of modern art-making in the state. Opening Sept. 7 is “Jiha Moon: Foreign Love.” The South Korea-born Atlanta resident, known for her blend of eastern and western cultural references, was one of three Georgia artists selected for MOCA GA’s annual Working Artist Project, which supported the exhibit’s creation.

Museum of Design Atlanta

MODA’s stated mission “is to advance the understanding and appreciation of design as the convergence of creativity and functionality through exhibitions, education and programming for visitors of all ages.” It views its new, slick street-level headquarters in Midtown, across Peachtree Street from the High Museum of Art, as “an exhibition space, a vital connection point, a cultural educator and a catalyst for the celebration and appreciation of the fact that design changes our lives and betters our world every day.” Opening Sept. 15: “Barrique: Wine, Design and Social Change,” about a wine barrel recycling project in Italy, in which 1,300 residents of a treatment center for drug addiction and social exclusion learn professional skills from wine making to wood working.

National Museum of Decorative Painting

Located on the Westside, this is the largest museum in the U.S. devoted exclusively to decorative painting, which it defines as the painting or decorating an object (bowls, trays, chairs, tables) that has a function separate from its decoration. The museum’s far-flung collection, numbering more than 1,500 works, dates from the late 1700s up to today.

Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta

Preparing students for professional art and design careers, SCAD Atlanta’s main facility on Peachtree Street in Midtown is an art and design center complete with classrooms, galleries, digital labs, library, dining hall and fitness center. The Ivy Hall cultural arts and writing center, in a restored Victorian landmark in Midtown (179 Ponce de Leon Ave. N.E.), is becoming a Atlanta literary and cultural hub. A notable literary event this fall is an appearance by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson, discussing her “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” Oct. 24 at SCAD Atlanta’s Peachtree campus.

Symbiosis Art and Science Alliance (SymbASA)

Launched a month ago after a meeting at Warren Wilson College near Asheville, N.C., this group has as its mission to use the arts to enhance public understanding of science. SymbASA intends to respond to “this nation’s science phobia, lagging science literacy and its dwindling support for arts and artists in public life and in the school.” One of its early projects is to develop a coalition between biological field stations and neighboring arts retreats, such as North Carolina’s Highlands Biological Station and the close-by Rensing Center in South Carolina.

Vouched Books

Whether reviewing work on its website, hosting a reading or selling small press books at one of its “guerrilla” book stores, Vouched vouches for small press literature. Atlanta-based poet and fiction writer Laura Relyea is the editor. On Nov. 14, Vouched presents writers Scott Daughtridge and Benjamin Carr at the Goat Farm Arts Center.

Zuckerman Museum of Art

Kennesaw State University’s Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art enriches the community’s interest in and appreciation for the visual arts through diverse exhibitions and educational programming. Its programs include contemporary and traditional works in a variety of media. The museum also is a repository for the KSU Art Collection. The Zuckerman currently consists of three galleries — the Art Gallery at Sturgis Library, the Fine Arts Gallery and the Don Russell Clayton Gallery. With the opening (date to be announced) of a new facility adjacent to KSU’s Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center, the gallery spaces will double.