With major museums and attractions set to open and rare-opportunity events on tap, 2014 promises to be a compelling year on Atlanta’s cultural and entertainment scene. Here is a look at a dozen notable developments to consider adding to your calendar.
New museum at Kennesaw State
A glass exterior that climbs toward the treetops. Airy galleries in a new 9,200-square-foot space. And art that spans the ages. This is the new Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University, slated to open on March 1.
Four years in the making, the museum will have six exhibition spaces and spacious galleries in which to showcase contemporary work and will be a home for its 6,000-piece permanent collection.
Among the opening highlights: Works from the museum’s collection will be hung in a reinterpretation of floor-to-ceiling, European-salon style; and “From Earth and Fire,” bronze and stone pieces by Ruth V. Zuckerman, whose late husband, Bernard A. Zuckerman, gave what is now the university’s graphic collection and also the $2 million to build the museum.
Then there is the physical space itself, which will be highlighted in “See Through Walls,” an exhibition of 14 artists responding to the very nature of a building’s construction: support, structure and space.
1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw. 770-499-3223, zuckerman.kennesaw.edu.
Hall of Fame kickoff
When the College Football Hall of Fame decided to relocate from the Midwest to Atlanta, who knew that the new home to "the gods of the Gridiron" would be nestled a short walk from the new Falcons stadium? Well, maybe somebody knew. For football fans, the Hall of Fame might just be one more reason to tailgate.
The $66.5 million facility will house a 45-yard football field and plenty of exhibition space. And memorabilia? Well, there will be acres of it dedicated to those “who lived the dream,” as the promotional video for the new museum says. Expected to open in the fall, it will be just in time for the new season. So where to spend a Saturday afternoon?
Beside Georgia World Congress Center on Marietta Street. 404-527-6949, www.cfbhall.com.
Civil rights museum
In May, following in the footsteps of Memphis, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta will finally join the ranks of Southern cities that have opened museums dedicated to a movement that changed history.
The National Center for Civil and Human Rights has been more than nine years in the making. Next to Centennial Olympic Park and linked by the new Atlanta Street Car project to historic Auburn Avenue, the museum, leaders of the institution and the city hope, will lead visitors to discover the city's civil rights roots and to consider the impact the movement had on human rights movements around the world.
It will house the Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection of the icon’s personal papers, but will also feature stories of and reflections from foot soldiers who made a difference in the nation’s quest for equality.
55 Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd., Atlanta. 404-991-6970, www.civilandhumanrights.org.
Premiere at Alliance
What was it like to be a young Atlanta woman with independence within her grasp at the close of the 1800s? Does she build a life on her own or with a childhood sweetheart? Or, will she change, like the city, in unpredictable ways?
This is the dilemma at the heart of the Alliance Theatre's production "The Geller Girls," by Atlanta playwright Janece Shaffer. With previews starting Jan. 15 and opening night Jan. 22, the play follows Louisa and Rosalee Geller as they navigate the Cotton States and International Exhibition in Piedmont Park and the excitement and uncertainty it brings to the city. Shaffer's play, which runs through Feb. 9, also will have companion events at the Margaret Mitchell House and the Atlanta History Center.
1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-4650, www.alliancetheatre.org.
‘Book of Mormon’ at Fox
Oh, those boys from "South Park." We're talking about the creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, of course, who with lyricist Robert Lopez, penned the musical "The Book of Mormon." Winner of nine Tony Awards, the show comes to the Fox Theatre for a run Jan. 28 through Feb. 9.
The show is as wild as a “South Park” episode without the animation: Mormon missionaries go to Uganda to spread the news of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Since its Broadway debut in 2011, critics have called the show one of the best of the century.
660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 1-855-285-8499, www.foxatltix.com.
Tribute to Gregg Allman
When Gregg Allman's manager approached the legendary Southern rocker about a tribute show, the response was typically Allman-esque.
“I said, ‘Don’t they do that for people who have already passed away?’” Allman said with a dry chuckle.
No, not always. And there are plenty of marquee names willing to head to the Fox Theatre on Jan. 10 to participate in “All My Friends: Celebrating the Songs and Voice of Gregg Allman”: Vince Gill, Dr. John, Chuck Leavell, Jackson Browne, Natalie Cole, Trace Adkins, Martina McBride, Pat Monahan, Widespread Panic, Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph and, of course, the Allman Brothers Band.
If you didn’t snag a ticket, you’re out of luck; The show sold out almost immediately. But it will be recorded by AXS TV and will air on the specialty music/pop culture channel in May.
Atlanta Ballet’s ‘Hamlet’
To be or not to be … that is the question at the heart of "Hamlet." But there's no question that the dance is in the wheelhouse of Atlanta Ballet, which will perform it April 11-13 at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
When the company performed Stephen Mills’ interpretation in 2003, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewer wrote, “The Atlanta Ballet is at it again. Breaking new ground; striking new poses; taking on new attitude.”
If anything, the company has grown more assured in the decade since in performing choreography that blends traditional and contemporary elements. (In Atlanta Ballet’s adventurous season, “Hamlet,” in fact, falls between “Modern Choreographic Voices” in March and a May program of world premieres.) The Atlanta Ballet Orchestra will perform Philip Glass’ “Hamlet” score.
2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. 404-873-5811, www.atlantaballet.com.
Smithgall garden in Gainesville
"It was his dream that it always be a natural wonder," centenarian benefactor Lessie Smithgall said of her late husband Charles at the groundbreaking ceremony for Smithgall Woodland Garden in Gainesville last spring.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden plans to open the first phase of the 168-acre garden, a hardwoods-filled foothills complement to its 30-acre Midtown original green spot, in the fall. The $21 million initial phase will comprise a winding entry road leading to a visitor center, 5 acres of display gardens and a 2,000-capacity amphitheater.
351 Lakehill Drive, Gainesville. 404-876-5859, www.atlantabotanicalgarden.org.
Africa Atlanta 2014
What began as an opportunity to host a major exhibition of African art and artifacts has evolved into Africa Atlanta 2014, a citywide, yearlong series of events. The goal: to highlight Atlanta as a nexus for reinventing the cultural and economic bonds among Africa, Europe and the Americas.
The central exhibition “Kongo Across the Waters,” focusing on connections between the art and culture of the Kongo region of western Central Africa and African-American art and culture in the U.S., will open at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum on May 17. Largely drawn from the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, it will run through Sept. 7.
Presented by the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, the Consulate General of Belgium in Atlanta and their partners, Africa Atlanta highlights also include “Mapping Place: Africa Beyond Paper,” an exhibit at Georgia Tech’s Robert C. Williams Paper Museum, Feb. 28 through May 17; South Africa’s Soweto Gospel Choir at the Rialto Center for the Arts on Feb. 8; and additional performances, screenings, conferences and symposiums.
At sites around the metro area. www.africaatlanta.org.
‘Dream Cars’ at High
The dreamers referenced in the title of the High Museum of Art exhibit "Dream Cars: Innovative Design, Visionary Ideas" were automobile designers. But you'll be excused if you dream of jumping inside one of the super-sleek European and American concept cars from the 1930s to the 21st century.
These 19 futuristic machines, including rarities designed by Ferrari, Bugatti, General Motors and Porsche, will be on view from May 21 through Sept. 7.
The exhibition will pair conceptual drawings, patents and scale models with the realized cars, demonstrating how their experimental designs advanced ideas of progress and changed the automobile from an object of function to what the High terms “a symbol of future possibilities.”
1280 Peachtree St. N.E. 404-733-4444, www.high.org.
Civil War-related events
One hundred and fifty years later, scholars, historians and regular civilians are still sorting out the Civil War.
The conflict’s sesquicentennial will be the inspiration for extended series of events at the Atlanta History Center and Cyclorama, among other sites.
At the history center in Buckhead, exhibits will include “Stars Fall on Atlanta: The Premiere of ‘Gone With the Wind’” (opening in March); “Wilbur G. Kurtz: History in ‘Gone With the Wind’” (opening July 2); and “Confederate Odyssey: The George W. Wray Jr. Civil War Collection” (opening July 18). There also will be lectures by noted historians William Link (Feb. 6) and James McPherson (Feb. 19); a Juneteenth celebration (June 21-22); Battle of Peachtree Creek tours (July 20); and more.
130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. 404-814-4000, www.atlantahistorycenter.com.
At the Cyclorama (and other sites the Grant Park institution is partnering with), an extensive slate of lectures, film screenings and performances includes a one-woman dance show by Germaine Ingram, “Black Dispatches: Freedom Under Foot” (July 22), and U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey reading from her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection “Native Guard” (Sept. 2).
800 Cherokee Ave. S.E., Atlanta. www.atlantacyclorama.org.
New water park at Six Flags
Embracing the philosophy “the wetter the better,” Six Flags Over Georgia will open a new multimillion-dollar water park, Hurricane Harbor, in May 2014 that will double the splashing opportunities in Atlanta available from the amusement park chain.
Operating out of the park’s 290-acre complex in Austell, just west of I-285, the new attraction offers an alternative to the existing White Water theme park in Marietta, also owned by Six Flags.
Hurricane Harbor will feature an 800,000-gallon wave pool, water slides and a children’s area called Paradise Island with miniature slides and drenching towers.
It is being built in the area formerly occupied by the Southern Star Amphitheater. Admission to Hurricane Harbor will be free with general admission or season passes. Six Flags is at 275 Riverside Parkway S.W., Austell. For information: 770-739-3400, www.sixflags.com.
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