Atlanta Contemporary — Attraction in Atlanta

My wife and I are art professionals -- she an art historian with a specialty in Contemporary art, and I am a painter and art professor. Our artistic interests are varied and forward-looking. That said, a visit to the Atlanta Art Center yesterday to view the Biennial Exhibit was most disappointing to say the least. Frankly, it is demoralizing to consider that the Southest has a wealth of artistc talent that deserves to respresent current artistic currents in region, but the ACC has chosen some of the most inept and sophomoric of work to display. There was one line artist, Perez, whose pastel and charcoal work was gripping and truly meritorious. Other than that, most of the other work was facil and uninspiring at best and others just plain awful. The curator seemed to choose work by artists who in some way are marginalized (e g., mentally ill), and not consider artistic merit. If they want to have an exhibit of untrained and clueless artists okay, but then call it that. Don't present this as representative of arts in the Southeast (which is the purpose of a biennial). I'd like to think that maybe there simply was a very poor pool of applicants, and not that the curator was so terribly inept.

Atlanta has not done well compared to other cities in establishing itself as an important "art city". Save a few very good private galleries, one or two good nonprofit spaces, the Carlos Museum, and the High, there is a terrible lack of artistic leadership and here. When the local press publishes an article it is often about street or pubic arrt, thus offeri g a myopic view of Atlanta art When it was the Nexxus years ago, the ACC was considered favorably. But this exhibit and previous exhibits indicate a management that really has no business running such a space that could be doing great things. They are in fact only celebrating and...

I truly enjoy the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the customer service from start to finish, and each carefully curated exhibit as you crawl the space.

Unfortunately, this level of customer service isn't extended to their events department. I sent an email through the info contact field on the center's website to inquire about leveraging a small space there. I received an email response almost the next day from the Events Manager, asking for detailed information about the event, etc. (this was for a welcoming community connection point, highlighting underserved voices from all walks of life with tea and pastries - an opportunity to connect with neighbors). I provided all the information on the event as asked...and received not one email response acknowledging or simply declining the request. I sent two follow up emails and received not one response.

Respond to your own requests for information with care or at minimum a sense of urgency.

Although the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center will not be the place for this small event in November, we received 3 sponsorships and it will be a success regardless. I was taken aback by the lack of customer service or even care to simply close the loop with a member of the community. Yes, I was kind of disappointed, but frankly...

I've been here a handful of times and up until today I'd have given them 5 stars, heck I even went on my birthday, but sadly I just got an email (spring 2025 for reference) from them that they would be partnering with Microsoft for an AI DAY?!?!?... Imagine being an art institution that claims to support artists and then promotes the very thing that is stealing and de-valuing our work just to output uncanny valley slop. This is now the second art place in Atlanta to do something featuring AI in recent years and I'm just so disappointed. I won't be going anymore unless they reverse course on AI and issue an apology. And I sincerely hope for anyone reading this who is now (or in the future) in a position of authority to determine what events go on at places that celebrate art, that you understand that artists do not like generative AI, we don't want it in our spaces. Generative AI is built on stolen art and problematic training data sets. It's corporate greed incarnate and attempts to replace artists with unfeeling machines. Gross. So yeah... 0/10 so long as...