A century of art, culture and creative exchange sets the stage for the High Museum of Art’s next chapter.
For 100 years, the High Museum of Art has been part of Atlanta’s cultural landscape. Now, the museum is celebrating its centennial with a wide-ranging 2026–27 schedule. The program spans photography, sculpture, painting, design, conservation, public art and American history.
Rather than focusing on its history through one exhibition, the centennial program tells the story across a series of exhibitions and installations. Together, they reflect the High’s evolving collection. They also explore its relationships with artists, communities and ideas.
Across 10 projects, visitors can encounter everything from Walter Wick’s miniature worlds to Martin Puryear’s sculptural investigations. The program also includes Jean-Michel Basquiat’s experiments with reproduction and Doris Derby’s photographs of the Civil Rights Movement.
As a result, the season looks both backward and forward. It celebrates where the High has been while considering what the museum can become over the next century.
Looking Back: A Centennial Year Already Underway
The High’s centennial programming began with exhibitions focused on its collection, contemporary artists and public art. Together, these projects establish the foundation for the year ahead.
New Acquisitions: Photography
Photography has been an important part of the High’s collection for decades. The museum acquired its first photograph in 1973. Then, in 1993, it established its photography department.
Now, New Acquisitions: Photography highlights recent additions to the collection. At the same time, it offers a look at where the department is headed next.
Works by Dawoud Bey, Rahim Fortune, Nikita Gale, Martine Gutierrez, Richard Learoyd, Baldwin Lee, Catherine Opie, Ed Panar and Susan Worsham demonstrate the range of the High’s growing photography collection.
More importantly, the exhibition considers collecting as a creative process. It presents the idea of “crafting a collection as an art form.”
Amy Sherald: American Sublime
The centennial year also brings a major retrospective of contemporary American painter Amy Sherald.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime surveys paintings made between 2007 and 2024. It brings together both well-known and rarely seen works.
The exhibition also has a strong connection to Atlanta. Sherald was born in Columbus, Georgia. She later studied painting in Atlanta and graduated from Clark Atlanta University. In 2018, the High awarded her the David C. Driskell Prize.
Organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the exhibition traces Sherald’s development as a painter. It also explores her approach to portraiture, identity and Black representation.
Los Porfiados (The Stubborns)
The centennial program also extends beyond the museum walls. In the Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza, visitors can experience Los Porfiados (The Stubborns).
Created by Chilean design studio gt2P, the installation features 14 monumental inflatable sculptures. Some reach nearly 17 feet tall.
The sculptures are inspired by the “mono porfiado,” or roly-poly toy. As a result, they move, bend and return to balance.
Meanwhile, the installation uses play and movement to explore collaboration and resilience. It also considers how people interact within public spaces.
Los Porfiados is the 10th project in the High’s multiyear outdoor series.
Paper Trees
Paper Trees looks at one of nature’s most recognizable forms. The exhibition brings together works from the High’s collection and loans from the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking and the Clark Atlanta University Art Museum.
The exhibition follows the tree as a recurring subject across different artistic approaches. These include unfinished plein-air drawings, printmaking and sculpture.
In addition, the works span from the 19th century to the present. Together, they show how artists have used nature to explore observation, material and representation.
Looking Ahead: The High’s Next Century
The exhibitions continuing throughout the centennial schedule expand the story even further. They bring together major artists, influential photographers and previously unseen perspectives.
At the same time, they introduce visitors to different approaches to art, history and creative practice.
I SPY! Walter Wick’s Hidden Wonders
Opening Aug. 28, I SPY! Walter Wick’s Hidden Wonders introduces visitors to the miniature worlds of Walter Wick.
Wick is the photographer and creator best known for the I SPY! and Can You See What I See? children’s book series.
The exhibition is the largest survey of Wick’s work to date. It brings together photographs, 3D models and rarely seen works.
His highly detailed scenes combine photography, craft, technology and storytelling. They also use optical illusion to turn looking into a puzzle.
Organized by the New Britain Museum of American Art, the exhibition runs through Jan. 3, 2027.
Martin Puryear: Nexus
Another major exhibition of the centennial year is Martin Puryear: Nexus. It brings more than 70 works to Atlanta for the final stop of a comprehensive career survey.
Puryear is known for exploring form, material and craftsmanship through sculpture. His work spans wood, glass, marble and cast bronze. The exhibition also includes drawings and prints.
Together, these works show how his practice has been shaped by natural forms, craft traditions and global cultures. They also reflect African American history.
The High is the exhibition’s exclusive Southeast venue. It is also its final stop.
The exhibition includes drawings Puryear created during his Peace Corps service in Sierra Leone. It also features sculptures connected to his 2019 U.S. Pavilion presentation at the Venice Biennale.
Martin Puryear: Nexus runs through Jan. 17, 2027.
Photography as a Way of Life: Minor White, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Callahan
Photography takes center stage again with Photography as a Way of Life. The exhibition brings together the work of Minor White, Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan.
The three photographers were influential artists, teachers and thinkers. Together, they helped reshape photography during the mid-20th century.
Their shared interest in abstraction and personal expression challenged traditional ideas about photography. More specifically, they expanded what photography could communicate.
The exhibition includes iconic and unpublished photographs. It also features color and black-and-white prints, rarely seen slides and archival materials.
In addition, the exhibition traces the artists’ connections to students and contemporaries. These include Emmet Gowin, Roy DeCarava and Ming Smith.
Organized by the Princeton University Art Museum, the exhibition runs Oct. 9 through Feb. 7, 2027.
Future Work: Preserving the Legacy of Art
The High also takes visitors behind the scenes with Future Work: Preserving the Legacy of Art. This exhibition focuses on conservation and the work required to protect art for future generations.
Rather than simply presenting finished artworks, the exhibition explores how museum professionals and conservation scientists study and preserve them.
Case studies include works on paper, light-sensitive photographs and bronze sculpture.
Visitors will also see the questions and techniques involved in conservation. Featured works include Mary Cassatt’s Sketch of a Mother Looking Down at Thomas and Il Guercino’s Christ and the Samaritan Woman.
The exhibition runs Feb. 12 through June 6, 2027.
Basquiat, the Blue Ribbon Paintings, and the Art of Reproduction
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s relationship with printmaking and reproduction takes center stage in Basquiat, the Blue Ribbon Paintings, and the Art of Reproduction.
Featuring more than 50 works, the exhibition examines how Basquiat used appropriation, reproduction and collaboration. These approaches became important parts of his artistic practice.
The exhibition also places his work within a broader history of artistic reproduction. That history stretches from Leonardo da Vinci to Robert Rauschenberg.
In addition, particular attention is given to Black printmakers such as Bob Blackburn. The exhibition considers how experimentation and exchange have shaped Black artistic practices across generations.
Organized by the Princeton University Art Museum, the exhibition runs Feb. 19 through May 16, 2027.
Doris Derby: A Civil Rights Journey
Finally, the centennial schedule concludes with Doris Derby: A Civil Rights Journey. The exhibition brings together photography, American history and personal experience.
Derby was a photographer, activist, organizer and educator. She moved to Mississippi at 23 and worked there from 1963 to 1972.
More than 75 photographs and archival materials document the grassroots organizations and community programs she participated in. These included cooperatives, quilting and crafting guilds, healthcare initiatives and adult literacy programs.
Because Derby was directly involved with many of the communities she photographed, her work offers an insider’s perspective on the Civil Rights Movement.
The exhibition also gives greater visibility to women whose organizing and community work were essential to the movement.
Organized by the High Museum of Art, Doris Derby: A Civil Rights Journey runs March 19 through Aug. 1, 2027.
A Century, Still in Motion
Ultimately, the High Museum of Art’s centennial is more than a celebration of its past. Across 10 exhibitions and installations, the museum is using its 100th year to examine how art is collected, preserved, photographed, made and experienced.
The range of the program is part of what makes the anniversary significant. For example, one season moves from children’s book photography to contemporary sculpture. It also moves from Civil Rights documentation to museum conservation.
At the same time, visitors can experience the work of one of America’s most influential contemporary painters alongside experimental public art. After a century in Atlanta, the High continues to expand what a museum can be. More importantly, it is creating new reasons for the city to keep looking.
Plan Your Centennial Visit
For the full schedule of Centennial events, exhibitions, free days and programs, visit the High Museum of Art’s Centennial events page.
MORE Lifestyle STORIES
Get an inside vue on the latest in luxury. You heard it here first.
