accessAtlanta

No doubt, 2006 will not be remembered as the year the Louvre took up its three-year residence at the High Museum. The jury is still out on the long-term implications of the concept as a template for museum programming, but exposing future generations of artists and art lovers to work of this quality can only be a good thing.

Standing in the gallery at the High Museum, not knowing which to admire first — the Raphael, the Rembrandt or the Velasquez — was one of the peak experiences of the year. But certainly not the only one. Herewith, a short list of 2006 experiences and of events just as important for the health of arts in metro Atlanta:

Mary Lee Bendolph (ENLARGE)
The High paid tribute to the quilting tradition of the women of Gee's Bend, Ala., this spring.
Liz Von Hoene (ENLARGE)
Nearly two dozen photographs by Liz Von Hoene filled the Art Institute of Atlanta's Janet S. Day Gallery in October, a highlight among the Atlanta Celebrates Photography's events.
RICH ADDICKS/Staff (ENLARGE)
Paintings by the Old Masters and ancient sculptures such "Isis" brought crowds to the High's Louvre Atlanta exhibit this fall.
MOST POPULAR STORIES Police: Jeffrey Donovan arrested, suspected of DUI Report: Abdul's return to 'American Idol' doubtful Beastie Boy Adam Yauch has 'very treatable' cancer Fallon's '7th Floor West' is a silly, soapy treat Chris Brown apologizes for Rihanna beating
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR

Institutions

• New gallery director Stuart Horodner has already introduced energy, edge and sophistication to the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. His first slate of exhibitions announced his intention to connect Atlanta to the larger art world, which, hopefully, will be a two-way street.

• The National Black Arts Festival reinvigorated its dormant visual arts program, creating a synergy around the theme of South Africa.

• Atlanta Celebrates Photography continues to broaden its scope. Local artists, present and future, benefitted from two new programs: "Spotlight," through which artists give public presentations about their work, and a partnership with Pace Academy to co-sponsor its annual photography competition for high school students. Its successful public art project, Matt Haffner's wall murals, injected art into unexpected places.

• Alternative spaces, invaluable as showcases for emerging artists, multiplied: Beep Beep and Corridor galleries as well as House of Colors joined YoYo, Young Blood and Get This.

• Eyedrum — at eight years old, the granddaddy of alternative spaces — received a $30,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts to support its exhibition program, signalling it has moved to a new level of maturity.

• The Warhol Foundation gave $110,000 to Art Papers, among the first to be included in an initiative to strengthen publications. It will use the funds to renovate its space, develop a Web site, get new computers and improve its database.

The Warhol grants provide outside validation as well as financial support. "We don't find a lot of artist-centered organizations in the Southeast," says Pamela Clap, the foundations's program director. "These grants are reflective of a certain energy in Atlanta."

For the scrapbook

• The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University served up some extraordinary experiences not otherwise available in the region. Among them, the frescos in "In Stabiano: Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite," including "Flora," whose ethereal delicacy is considered a high point in Roman painting, and the exquisite miniatures in "Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting." Its Greek and Roman collections grew apace, thanks to the patronage of Thalia Carlos and acumen of curator Jasper Gaunt. Curator Peter Lacovara called on connections for gifts and loans to fill out the galleries devoted to Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern art.

• From Oglethorpe University, "Portals to Shangri-La: Masterpieces From Buddhist Mongolia," the most recent in its illuminating series of Central Asian Buddhist art.

• More memorable moments: the Gee's Bend quilts, marvels of design and grit, and Morris Louis' monumental odes to color, at the High. Sarah Hobbs' "Periodic Table of the Traits," a witty conceptual piece mapping psychological defects in an imitation of the chemical periodic table, at Solomon Projects. Amalia Amaki's "Kids Dancing in a Red Knowing," a haunting image of a child performer found on a postcard embellished with her signature buttons, at Spelman College Museum of Fine Arts.

• It was a very good year for drawing, from the Old Master sheets at Louvre Atlanta to contemporary works like Jennifer Celio's essays on the quotidian and Alex Kvares' intricate and disconcerting tableaux, both at Romo Gallery. Also, those from the quirky Atlanta collective Golden Blizzard at Marcia Wood Gallery.

• And for wing-stretching: Teresa Bramlette-Reeves' doilies and diaries at Sandler Hudson Gallery; Charles Nelson's video meditations on race and identity at Romo Gallery and Saltworks; George Long's installation at Agnes Scott's Dalton Gallery; Gerry Hull's subtle poem-paintings at Mason Murer; Jody Fausett's low-tech special-effects photos and Shana Robbins' surreal self-portraits at Tew; Meta Gary's 21st-century dream paintings at Eyedrum.

• In the chutzpah category: Clark Kentish Fahamu Pecou's Superfly transformation as a hip-hop star, at Ty Stokes Gallery, which worked — in contrast to Ben Fain's Matthew-Barneyesque performance "Gemini's Brine," involving a helicopter, ambulance and hand-built floats, which didn't, because his aspirations outran his ability to pull them off.

Jerry Cullum contributed to this story.