Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center
The Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center located in Atlanta. There are four arts divisions that are located in one giant campus. Opened to the public in 1968, this center is run by a non-profit organization. The center houses the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the High Museum of Art and Young Audiences.
The campus of the Woodruff Arts Center covers an area of 12.25 acres. There is a planned expansion of 18.25 acres as well. There is also space in the campus for performances, exhibitions and educational pursuits.
The Woodruff Arts Center has an organized presence online. Tickets for the various performing groups can be bought online. You can also go to the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office and order for tickets to any of the performances that are scheduled there. The center operates between 10am to 6pm on Mondays and 10am to 8pm from Tuesday to Friday. The timing for Saturday is between 12 noon and 8pm but the center is open from 12 noon to 5pm only.
Other than hosting the performances that are part of the regular affair at the center, there are also various other activities that are held at the center. Arts Education, Woodruff Salutes, Celebrate Diversity and Green Initiatives are some of the other initiatives that the center has planned.
The Arts Education Program reaches more than 700,000 students across 76 countries. Some of the education initiatives include In School Programming, Out of School Programming and Family Programming Initiate. The Woodruff Salutes initiative has been designed to recognize leaders in the area of performing arts and the Celebrate Diversity initiative aims at showcasing the cultural diversity that exists in the city. The Green Initiatives has been created to ensure that the campus is managed in an environmentally friendly manner.
Purpose
Arts Alliance that opened in 1968 and was a relatively a small performing arts center when compared to the now eminent Woodruff Arts Center. In the initial years the city of Atlanta was less known for its excellence in arts. It was in fact, more known as a business town that housed the headquarters of many large multinational companies.
The center was created in the glory that it exists in today after the plane crash that took away almost all the performing arts talent that the city had. The shock brought forth Robert W. Woodruff who donated magnanimously to the cause. Once the city had its Woodruff Arts Center, they never really forgot the struggle that they went through when they lost all the prominent arts people of the city.
The Woodruff Arts Center aims at encouraging various kinds of performing arts. There is no bias in terms of the kind of performing arts that are encouraged and all those who seek to learn and appreciate these arts are welcome. The four divisions that the center has include the Alliance Theatre, the Atlanta Symphony, the High Museum of Arts and Young Audiences.
The Alliance Theatre is the recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Awards and has various plays that run in the campus throughout the year. The Wizard of Oz, Into the Woods, Golda's balcony and many more traditional plays are shown every night. In addition to that, this group also encourages and trains new talent that wants to audition for the plays and make a career in theatre.
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has received various Grammy Awards for the Telarc Association that it created. Many eminent music directors have led the symphony over the years and some of these names include Robert Spano, Yoel Levi, Robert Shaw and Henry Sopkin.
The High Museum of Arts is a place where different kinds of exhibitions are displayed through the year and the Young Audiences is a division of the center that aims to "transform the lives and learning of young people through arts".
History
Anyone who has been to Atlanta will come to know that the Woodruff Arts Center is an extremely important element of the life in this place. Located in the middle of town, the center provides the people of Atlanta a great variety of performing arts and exhibitions. The choice that is available in the center ranges from traditional forms of performing arts to the more modern and avant-garde ones.
The community in Atlanta has always cherished great art but there was a time when the cultural side of the city was in great danger. In 1962, a plane that was carrying the most eminent performing arts personalities of Atlanta's crashed. The crash resulted in the death of all the arts community leaders except two. The remaining 130 that perished took a large part of Atlanta's performing arts talent away.
Being fond of the performing arts personalities, the entire city went into mourning. But once the city got over the initial grief, they moved in to action. All plans with regards to performances that were in progress were shelved and new ones were initialized. The city planned to create a memorial for all those who had lost their lives in the crash.
Many committees were formed and a large number of individuals, businesses and corporate offices send their contributions towards this effort. There were some who even donated amounts as high as $4 million. This was the beginning of the Atlanta Arts Alliance. The anonymous donor was later found to be the Woodruff Foundation that has been created by the Coca-Cola based magnate Robert W. Woodruff. He accepted and admitted to the large contribution he had made and got involved with the project with fervor.
Ever since the inception of the Woodruff Arts Center, performing arts have never seen a dull day in the city. The city has never forgotten the manner in which arose as a phoenix.
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