The High Museum of Art has over 50,000 advance ticket reservations for "The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army," which opened Sunday, November 16, 2008, and runs through April 18, 2009. This is the largest number ever of advance ticket reservations for the High. The exhibition was previously on view at the British Museum in London (September 13, 2007, through April 6, 2008) and sold out every time slot to over 850,000 visitors.
The High celebrated the opening of the exhibition on Sunday, November 16 from 12 to 5 p.m. with a special opening ceremony at "Ni Hao, Atlanta! A Celebration Fit for an Emperor." Visitors enjoyed traditional Chinese dance and musical performances, as well as art-making workshops to make a miniature terracotta warrior for a miniature army display. The celebration surrounding this exhibition will continue throughout the fall with the following programs:
Go All Night! Friday, November 28, 9a.m. to 2 a.m.
Hands on for the Holidays and Holiday Music: December 26 – 31; 1 to 4 p.m.
High Museum of Art members will be admitted to "The First Emperor" for free and will have special access to preview the exhibition before it opens to the public. Memberships may be purchased online at www.High.org or at the museum. Individual ticket prices are $18 for adults; $15 for students and seniors with ID; $11 for ages 6 to 17; and free for age 5 and under. Discounted tickets are available for groups of 10 or more. Tickets will include admission to "The First Emperor," "Louvre Atlanta: The Louvre and the Masterpiece," all other special exhibitions and the High's permanent collection. An audio guide including both "The First Emperor" and "The Louvre and the Masterpiece" will be available for purchase—$5 for general public; $3 for Members, complete group bookings, and ages 17 and under. The audio guide will be included for school group admission.
The High will also partner with Arts & Exhibitions International, the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, and Brand Atlanta for a special "Treasures Fit for Kings" combination ticket that will offer discounted admission to both "The First Emperor" and "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs" (Nov. 15, 2008 – May 25, 2009, at the Atlanta Civic Center). Discounted group tickets for both exhibitions can be reserved by calling 1.866.52GROUP.
The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army "The First Emperor" was inspired by one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. Featuring over 100 works, including 15 terracotta figures, the exhibition represents one of the largest groups of important works relating to the First Emperor ever to be loaned to the U.S. by the Museum of the Terracotta Army and the Cultural Relics Bureau of Shaanxi Province in Xi'an, China. With rarely seen and recently discovered objects from his famed tomb complex, the exhibition will provide insight into the legacy of China's First Emperor, Qin Shihuangdi, who reigned from 221–210 B.C.
"The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army" is made possible by Lead Sponsor GE, Presenting Sponsor Portman and Official Global Delivery Partner UPS, Official Airline Partner Delta Air Lines, and Official Media Partner Turner Broadcasting. Generous support is provided by The Henry Luce Foundation. Additional support provided by The E. Rhodes and Leona Carpenter Foundation and The Blakemore Foundation. This exhibition is presented in association with the British Museum with support from Morgan Stanley.
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Monday, November 17, 2008
High Hits Record-breaking Advance Ticket Sales for The First Emperor
Monday, October 13, 2008
Historian and Author to Speak at China Research Center Event in Atlanta
The China Research Center at Mercer’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics will inaugurate a new event series with a lecture by noted historian and author Kenneth Pomeranz, Ph.D., at 7 p.m., Oct. 15, in the Rich Auditorium at the High Museum in downtown Atlanta. He will discuss his recent work on China’s state, society and economy in a presentation titled “Chinese Development and World History: Putting the East Asian Model in Perspective.”
The High Museum of Art is hosting the event in conjunction with its fall exhibition, The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army. No registration is required for this event. The lecture is free and open to the public.
In his lecture, Dr. Pomeranz will examine how the levels of economic performance in core regions of Europe and East Asia were surprisingly similar until almost 1800. Despite the enormous setbacks and turmoil of the 19th and 20th centuries, certain basic elements of the high Qing (i.e., China’s last dynasty) political economy remained intact and ultimately proved quite compatible with new waves of growth, at least for coastal China; those patterns resemble some aspects of a distinctive pattern of industrialization previously seen in Japan and Taiwan. In the Chinese case, however, the “East Asian” features of development along the coast must be seen in the context of relations between the coast and the Chinese interior. Today, the government’s “develop the West” program — set against a backdrop both of looming resource shortages in East China industries, unusually large regional differences in living standards, unprecedented rates of migration directed towards the coast and urbanization — may represent both the outcome and the end of social, economic and environmental patterns that have characterized China’s political economy for centuries.
Dr. Pomeranz has been recognized as a leading historian of China who moves beyond the study of a self-contained "China" or “East Asia” by attempting to understand the origins of a world economy as the outcome of mutual influences among various regions, rather than the simple imposition by a more "advanced" Europe on the rest of the world.
His book, “The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy” (Princeton University Press, 2000), makes groundbreaking arguments on issues concerning global history and challenges the conventional notion of China’s backwardness in the modern era. It won the 2000 John K. Fairbank prize, making Dr. Pomeranz the only historian who has won this prestigious prize twice. “Great Divergence” also won the 2001 World History Association Book Prize and was chosen as one of Choice’s Outstanding Academic Books of 2000.
He is also the author of “The World that Trade Created” (with Steven Topik). He is currently working on a variety of projects, including a general history of Chinese political economy, from the 17th century to the present for Cambridge University Press, two edited volumes that will come out in 2009. Dr. Pomeranz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006.
Dr. Pomeranz is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, and founding director of the University of California’s Multi-Campus Research Program in World History.
The event is co-sponsored by the School of History, Technology and Science and The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology; The Program in World History and Cultures, Department of History, Georgia State University; The Stetson School of Business and Economics, Mercer University; and The Confucius Institute of Atlanta.
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Monday, July 21, 2008
Driskell Prize Recipient: Xaviera Simmons Lectures at the High Museum of Art
This program is free and is offered in conjunction with the National Black Arts Festival.
Named after the renowned African American artist and art scholar, the Driskell Prize recognizes a scholar or artist in the beginning or middle of his or her career whose work makes an original and important contribution to the field of African American art or art history. Simmons’ work combines 21st-century media and traditional art forms, encompassing photography, performance, video and installation.
“Innovation and exploration are key components of a Driskell Prize winner’s artistic practice,” said Michael E Shapiro, Nancy and Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Director of the High. “Xaviera Simmons’ work challenges existing ideas regarding history, community and art by allowing viewers and artists to participate in the environments she creates. We are pleased to honor Simmons’ fresh perspective in the field of African American art by awarding her this recognition.”
Xaviera Simmons thoroughly examines and engages a range of familiar topics, including landscape, history and community. In her newest photography series, titled “A New Era Americana,” she photographs passersby in front of pastoral backdrops on city streets, creating an uncertain and conflicted portrait. In works like these, Simmons uses visual cues to challenge the notion of a constructed identity.
Simmons’ most acclaimed work is an installation piece commissioned in 2006 by Art in General for its storefront in New York City. Originally titled “How to Break Your Own Heart: Visitors Welcome,” the piece transformed the gallery’s project space into a “jazz salon.” This area featured felted floors, seating, a DJ booth, impromptu performances and a 24-hour video presentation. Simmons treated the walls with vintage jazz LP covers and scheduled musical performances, including her own DJ sets. Since its initial installation, “How to Break Your Own Heart” has tripled in size and traveled to the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas, and the Zacheta National Art Gallery in Warsaw, Poland.
Born in 1974, Xaviera Simmons became a Cave Canem Poets Fellow in 2002 and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography from Bard College in 2004. She completed a two-year actor-training conservatory program with Maggie Flanagan in 2005, as well as a studio residency with the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in New York City. In 2007 Simmons was awarded a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant and an “In the Public Realm” commission from The Public Art Fund. In 2008 Simmons will show works at March Gallery, New York City, and at the Bronx Museum of Art in “Street Art, Street Life.” She will also serve as an artist-in-residence at Platform Garanti in Istanbul, Turkey. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Georgia State Educator’s Photos Exhibited at High Museum
At the height of the civil rights movement, photographic images of the struggle for equality alerted the nation to injustices waged against African-Americans. Years later, these images are still part of our collective memory.
Doris Derby, director of African-American Student Services and Programs at Georgia State, is one of nearly 50 photographers whose work is included in “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968,” an exhibit on display through Oct. 5 at the High Museum of Art. The exhibit features approximately 200 photographs that helped shape public opinion on the civil rights movement.
“A lot of people were immune to what was going on,” Derby said. “A lot of people had blinders on. It had been tradition, the way things were, and so the photographs really acted to vividly depict the struggle for equality, the individual acts of the struggle, and the reaction of the segregationists who did not want to change the status quo.”
Derby, who began documenting her subjects through painting, drawing and photography as a child, has previously exhibited her work at Georgia State as well as other venues.
“I was doing what had always been one of my goals – to see African-Americans make headway in the arts, in education and employment, and they all tied together in photographs,” she said of her work.
“Road to Freedom,” which also includes a collection of historical documents, will travel throughout the U.S. after it leaves the High. Derby is also preparing for an upcoming exhibit at Georgia State titled “Disappearing Black Neighborhoods.” These images capture the everyday life of those growing up in the segregated South of the 1960s.
“I was always interested in the depiction of African-American people in positive light, in full light,” Derby said. “This has been one of the things that I’ve done all my life, getting images of African-American people out for other people to see.”
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
16th Annual High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction Surpasses $2 Million Mark for Second Year in its History
In its 16th year, the 2008 High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction reached a Live Auction total of more than $1.5 million. Silent auctions on Friday and Saturday and a Paddle Raise during the live auction brought the total to over $1.76 million in auction sales. The auction total along with event ticket sales brought the net profit for the 2008 Wine Auction to $2.1million, marking only the second time in its history to have raised over $2 million. Proceeds from the auction are a vital part of the Museum’s acquisition, exhibition and educational programming funds. The dates for the 17th annual High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction are March 26–28, 2009.
The High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction celebrated its anniversary in 2008 with the theme “The Sensational Sixteenth High Museum Atlanta Wine Auction: How Sweet It Is!” Organized by volunteer co-chairs Liz Lazarus and Joan Marmo, the auction events were held in Atlantic Station under festive big-top tents decorated with the colors of lipstick red and chocolate brown.
More than 250 live- and silent-auction lots offered exclusive opportunities to taste, tour and visit with more than 85 vintners from the world’s premier wine regions, including California, Oregon, Washington, France, Australia, Argentina and South Africa, as well as the chance to purchase cult wines, rare vintages and large-format bottles. Celebrated Burgundy vintner Alex Gambal and California Central Coast winemaker Joseph Davis were the auction’s Special Guests of Honor. Teaming up to wield the gavel for Saturday’s live auction were esteemed wine auctioneers Michael Davis and Leah Hammer of Hart Davis Hart Wine Co., Chicago.
The 3rd annual Paddle Raise was held in support of youth education at the High, including programs such as the “I See Literacy/I See History” project, Summer Teacher Institute and the Atlanta Public Schools After-School Project. This year’s Paddle Raise allowed bidders to contribute to the fund from $500 to $10,000 each, with the total reaching $100,000.
The highest single auction bid of the day was $85,000 for a Girls’ Trip to Napa Valley including private jet travel and a stay at the Meadowood resort. Another record-breaking sale came when a “Puttin’ on the Hog” party for 30 people with Linton Hopkins, of both Restaurant Eugene and Holeman and Finch Public House, and a special cuvée by Tuck Beckstoffer, of 75 Wine Co., sold three times for a total of $92,000. In the most moving bid of the day, an extraordinary collection of 50 bottles of wine sold for $65,000 in memory of longtime auction supporter Taylor Stuckey.
Other Live Auction Highlights
$70,000 for events hosted by auction co-chair Joan Marmo and husband Joel Knox in their home
$40,000 for dinner with Julie Martinelli and her wines, plus Hugh Acheson of Athens’s Five & Ten in the kitchen, and $30,000 for a rare Beaux Frères tasting of 16 vintages with owner/winemaker Michael Etzel and Kevin Rathbun as chef
$60,000 (sold twice at $30,000 each) for a wine dinner hosted by Louise Sams with Gerry Klaskala of Aria and Carvel Gould of Canoe in the kitchen
$58,000 (sold twice at $30,000 and $28,000) for a “Cellar Raid” at West and Katie Johnson’s house, with food by chefs from Atlanta’s Les Dames d’Escoffier
$45,000 for a 9L of D. R. Stephens Estate’s 2005 Moose Valley Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, plus a poolside evening barbecue in Napa Valley
$45,000 for a customized trip to China to view the Terracotta Warriors with business-class airfare from Delta Air Lines
$40,000 for a California-Bordeaux Gourmet Extravaganza with Shari and Garen Staglin of Staglin Vineyards, Greg Gregory and Jeff Murray and the chefs from Blackberry Farm
$38,000 for an Insiders’ Trip to Burgundy with Special Guests of Honor Alex Gambal of Maison Alex Gambal and Joe Davis of Arcadian Winery
$35,000 for an African Safari by Singita Grumeti Reserves
$30,000 for dinner at Tiffany & Co. in Phipps Plaza with Chef Tom Catherall and wines by Iron Horse Vineyards
$30,000 for a collection of Kosta Browne wines and a tour and tasting at the winery
$24,000 for a Sweet 16 collection of Colgin Cellars wines and a painting by Suzanne Hughes Sullivan
$24,000 for Sixteen Sensational Bottles from Paul Hobbs wines
The 16th annual festivities commenced on Wednesday, March 26, with the Artist’s Dinner, and continued on Thursday with the sold-out Winemaker Dinners and a Trade Tasting. Friday featured premiere Tasting Seminars and the Gala Dinner leading up to the grand Vintners’ Reception and the Live Auction on Saturday, March 29. More than 85 distinguished wineries and 37 of Atlanta’s finest chefs were represented at the Vintners’ Reception to the sold-out crowd of 900 food- and wine-lovers. On Friday evening, Gala Dinner guests dined on a menu from Southern Foodways Alliance star chefs Gerry Klaskala and Kathryn King of Atlanta’s Aria; Hugh Acheson of Five & Ten and The National in Athens, Georgia; Mike Lata of FIG in Charleston, South Carolina; and Todd Richards of The Oakroom in Louisville, Kentucky, with dinner presented by A Legendary Event. Austin Hope, winemaker for his family’s Treana Winery and for his own Austin Hope Winery, served as the Special Guest for The Big Finish on Saturday evening.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was Presenting Sponsor for the fourth year. Premier Sponsors included “Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles” magazine, Geographics, Wachovia Wealth Management, KPMG, Montaluce and The Streets of Buckhead/Ben Carter Properties. Delta Air Lines was the Official Airline Sponsor, and Atlanta Area Lexus Dealers were the Official Automotive Sponsor. Atlantic Station was Site Sponsor for the third year, and other sponsors included A Legendary Event, Arnall Golden Gregory Private Wealth Group, Callaway Gardens, The Coca-Cola Company and Evian, Four Seasons Hotel Atlanta, Holder Construction Company, Novare Group-The Atlantic, Philips Consumer Lifestyle, Sherlock’s Wine Merchant, TwinEngines and Wilmington Trust. The Big Finish was sponsored by “Skirt!” magazine. Media partners included “Flavors” and “Restaurant Forum” magazines.
The Wine Auction is the single largest fundraising event held annually for the High Museum of Art. One of the top charity fundraising events in Atlanta and the largest charity wine auction in the U.S. benefiting the arts, it was named number five in a national ranking of the Top 10 charity wine auctions in the United States by “Wine Spectator” magazine in their March 31, 2008, issue. Proceeds from the Auction are a vital part of the Museum’s acquisition, exhibition and education plans.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Vive Le Polo
Sunday, June 22, 12 to 6 p.m.; Gates open at 12 p.m., Match begins at 2 p.m.
Chukkar Farm and Scuppernong Polo Club; 1005 Little River Way, Alpharetta, GA.
Join a glorious summer day with "Best Picnic" and "Best Hat" contests, High fashion, gourmet food and drink, live and silent auction, the stomping of the divots, and an exciting match of polo. Bring your best picnic spread of gourmet food and drink.
This event is hosted by the High’s Art Partners Membership group, all proceeds benefit the High. Bronze Sponsors for Vive le Polo! are Aston Martin of Atlanta and Mason Murer Fine Art. Media Sponsors are The Atlantan and Flavors Magazine.
$25 in advance; $30 at the gate. For tickets, visit www.High.org or call 404-733-4521.
