From the Magazine

Is graffiti artistic expression? Vandalism? Criminal turf-staking? The lines between what’s acceptable and not have blurred.

By his mid-teens, Fred Brown had fallen into a cycle of crime, jail, release, repeat. He credits his young son with finally breaking the pattern. But he praises—of all things—a wooden antique loom as the key to keeping him on track.

Coming to the High Museum of Art through a partnership with the Museum of Modern Art in New York, artist Janet Cardiff’s installation The Forty Part Motet explores the experience of sound.

Soon, as many as 300 chimpanzees will climb trees, drink smoothies, and play with toy trucks and stuffed bears in their version of retirement on a 236-acre spread about 10 miles from the town of Blue Ridge.

Organizers say the city isn't addressing Buckhead's problems, but opponents say a Buckhead secession could bankrupt Atlanta and send a cold message during a time of renewed focus on equity and race relations.

West End was named in the 1860s after London’s famed theater district. Connected to downtown by horse-drawn streetcars, the suburb soon attracted affluent residents, including mayors, a governor, business owners, and Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle Remus tales. Though the neighborhood experienced white flight during the mid-20th century, it has long benefited from its proximity to the Atlanta University Center—drawing prominent residents like Dr. O.T. Hammonds, whose grand Victorian home is now an art museum. In recent years, the Atlanta BeltLine’s Westside Trail has brought new development—such as the sprawling Lee + White complex—along with the mixed benefits of gentrification. Through it all, strong local leadership has ensured that the “Best End” keeps its sights on the future.

A century ago, streetcars were Atlanta’s proverbial lifeblood, connecting Downtown to “suburbs” like Inman Park, Druid Hills, and the West End. Even as cars became common in the 1920s and 1930s, Atlantans continued commuting by trolley, streetcar, and intercity train.

Vertical farming was a hot agricultural topic before the recession. What better way to provide produce to an urban society than to grow it out of specially commissioned skyscrapers? Then economic realities set in. Enter Atlanta-based PodPonics.

Mere miles from Downtown, the Goat Farm Arts Center, a Westside art colony, is a twelve-acre city within a city. The former nineteenth-century cotton gin factory is now the site of film screenings, theatrical performances, food truck festivals, and gallery shows and has its own coffee shop, organic farm, and resident dance troupe GloATL—and it all runs on the energy of 315 creatives working in close proximity. Here are a few of the dynamos.