The numbers paint a positive picture for the High Museum of Art exhibit “Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters,” which completes its six-month run on Sunday.
Having drawn 310,634 through Tuesday, and with special programs and extended hours this weekend, the show of 20th-century masterworks from the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection already registers as the fifth-highest-attended in High history. But perhaps more important for the Midtown museum's future, it has pushed a trend rare in the arts: The institution's audience has gotten younger.
The average age of "Picasso to Warhol" guests has been just under 42 years old, compared with the museum's average of 45, according to High "visitor intercept" studies conducted during regular business hours and not including school groups or special younger-skewing programs such as Culture Shock or College Night.
Still, High director Michael Shapiro ponders how the museum can do a better job attracting visitors for the exhibit that bookends "Picasso" next year, another major installment of the High's four-year collaboration with New York's Museum of Modern Art, “Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913-2013,” and for other big shows to come.
"Yes, we’re pleased," he said, "but when I look at the opportunities ahead in terms of [drawing] a higher percentage of the 5 million people in the metropolitan Atlanta area, we still have room for further improvement."
Here are three things he's learned as the MoMA partnership has unfolded:
People like special exhibits, but like special events wrapped around those exhibits even more: "We have to offer more activities ... music, performing arts as well as different types of family days," Shapiro said. "The longer-term opportunity is, can you make the High Museum of Art be truly a destination for people on a more regular basis? ... That is a huge assignment. People are very, very busy, and Atlanta is not a foot-traffic town."
MoMA has seeded ideas for drawing high school and college students and young professionals that can be developed: Inspired by a MoMA program, the High crafted its Culture Shock series, comprising a concert or other performance along with museum access during extended late-night hours. The three held during "Picasso" have drawn 800, 2,000 and 1,300, with a fourth coming Saturday.
A Teen Team night, planned by aspiring-artist teen interns, attracted 1,100.
Consider the trend exemplified by food trucks: "Part of the phenomena of food trucks, it seems to me, is a kind of anti-establishmentarianism," Shapiro said, describing that consumer mindset as preferring something more mobile and fluid than a bricks-and-mortar restaurant or store. He believes that's part of the success as well of groups such as gloATL that perform in unconventional spaces.
"Mobility and fluidity are part of the reason some people aren’t going to subscribe [to traditional performing arts] -- because they don’t want to be pinned down for this or that," Shapiro said. "So the whole model for planning needs to shift. Because the world isn’t going to accommodate the museum’s structure, it’s got to be the other way around."
Though putting a Picasso or a Warhol on an art truck isn't in the cards, he said, "There could be ways that we have to change in order to take our expertise and make it more publicly available."
ON VIEW
“Picasso to Warhol: Fourteen Modern Masters”
Closing Sunday. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. Saturday-2 a.m. Sunday; noon-6 p.m. Sunday. $18; $15, students, seniors; $11, ages 6-17; free, 5 and younger, members. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-4444, www.high.org.
Special closing options:
- Tickets are half price during Thursday Nights at the High, 4-10 p.m. Thursday, with a permanent collection tour offered at 6:30 p.m. Core Performance Group dances at 6 and 8 p.m.
- Culture Shock's "Go Out With a Pop" event, 8 p.m. Saturday-2 a.m. Sunday, offers a "Picasso to Warhol" viewing plus a chance to experiment in a DIY silkscreen studio, take a screen test, go on a curator-led Pop Talk and catch live music. $20; $10 members; $5 students with valid ID. Free parking in Woodruff Arts Center deck after 11 p.m.
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