Layout design by Lina Duong

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CLIQUE

EDITOR'S LETTER

Embrace the Unknown

FEBRUARY 2017

ppreciating visual arts goes beyond the mere esthetics of the piece itself but in the effort of detecting and comprehending the way it was constructed, the forms and technics employed because they show the true artist skills. It is every artist vision and skills to elevate inanimate objects, places and materials into a higher form. A painting for instance is the skilled application of mere pigments themselves in suspension in a mere viscous matter and onto a mere inanimate support that produce it's artistic brilliance and new identity.

hidden GEMS IN THE BIG CITIES

While a piece of art does not necessarily have to seek a meaning, it reveals the artist's self or others', or a political order near of faraway, it is the artist's view on society with its ills and failings, at times offering a vision of the future or the past. While unseen forms or technics might make one unsettled or unappreciative, one should always try to understand and appreciate that in its novelty might reside a new art form of tomorrow.

Lina Duong, Editor in Chief

Green Kiss/Red Embrace (Disjunctive) by John Baldessari at The Broad, L.A.

La Gerbe by Henri Matisse

CONTENTS

MOCA GA The Southern gem

CLIQUE

13 Living Walls

02 17

Atlanta's street art

Atlanta Contemporary Art center that engages audience

17 The Broad

The hottest museum in L.A.

Lonnie Holley

Life story of an artist

The Translated Mask Printmaking in art

7 The High Museum The Southern art gem

10 All photography taken by Lina Duong

22 WhiteSpace An unique art space

Bohemian Circus

An interactive evening

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ATl nta CONTEMPORARY

ONNIE

by atlantacontemporary.org

HOLLEY

by atlantacontemporary.org

ounded in 1973 as Nexus, a grassroots artists’ cooperative, Atlanta Contemporary has since become one of the Southeast’s leading contemporary art centers. We play a vital role in Atlanta’s cultural landscape by presenting six–ten exhibitions within four seasonal cycles each year, featuring consequential artists from the local, national, and international art scenes. We are one of the few local institutions that commissions new works by artists, paying particular attention to artists of note who have not had a significant exhibition in the Southeast. We organize 50+ diverse educational offerings annually, unrivaled by other local organizations of our size. We are the only local organization to provide on-site subsidized studio space to working artists through our Studio Artist Program, removing cost as a barrier to the creative process.

Artworks by Lonnie Holley Clique / 02.17

olley is a man of many myths and talents. Born in Jim Crow-era Birmingham, Alabama, as the seventh of 27 children, Holley traveled across the South and held a wide array of jobs before making his first artwork at the age of 29. Well known for his assemblages, Holley incorporates natural and man-made objects into totemic sculptures. Materials such as steel scrap, sandstone, plastic flowers, crosses, and defunct machines commemorate places, people, and events. The exhibition will feature a selection of sculptures and drawings on loan from the artist. In addition to these works, Holley will

I Snuck off the slave ship create site-specific installations reflective of the spontaneous and improvisational nature of his creative process. Curator Daniel Fuller says “Lonnie Holley is one of the most influential artists and musicians of the 20th/21st centuries. His powerful work is improvisational and free in that it goes beyond the autobiographical and chronicles daily life and history of people all over the South. It is as much concerned with all of mother earth as it is cosmic.” Holley was included in the seminal exhibition 'More than Land and Sky: Art From Appalachia' at the National Museum of American Art in 1981. In 2013 The Whitney Museum, NY, hosted Holley’s debut New York performance concurrent to the museum’s Blues for Smoke exhibition. His work is included in

museum collections, including; Smithsonian American Museum of Art, Washington, DC; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; and the American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY. Holley has also gained recognition for his music, and he has collaborated with the indie-rock bands Dirty Projectors and Animal Collective. In 2010, he recorded his debut album, Just Before Music, which came out in 2012. In 2013, his follow-up record, Keeping a Record of It, was released under the Atlanta-based Dust to Digital label. Clique / 02.17

THE 'EARTH’ WITHOUT ART by Molly Thompson

IS JUST 'MEH’

Visit the Southeast's most renowned art museum

ocated in the midtown section of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art is one of the most important art museums in the Southeast. Its permanent collection of more than 11,000 objects includes a range of significant works by nineteenth- and twentieth-century American artists, a highly respected collection of American decorative arts from 1825 to 1917, notable European holdings in paintings and prints, and growing collections of modern and contemporary art, photography, African art, and works by African Americans. The High is also committed to acquiring objects by southern artists as well as by folk and self-taught artists. The High was established in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association. In 1926 Harriet Harwell Wilson High donated her family's Peachtree Street residence to be used as a museum, and the association was renamed in her honor. By 1955 the collection

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had outgrown the High mansion and was moved to a new brick building adjacent to the house. Despite Atlanta's general ambivalence toward the fine arts at midcentury, the High grew steadily, albeit slowly, thanks to several generous bequests and gifts. In 1962 tragedy drew attention to Atlanta's cultural life—during a museum-sponsored tour, 106 Georgia arts patrons died in the Orly air crash near Paris, France. The Atlanta Arts Alliance was formed in honor of the victims, and in 1968 the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center opened. Growth continued, and in 1979 Coca-Cola executive Robert Woodruff proposed a challenge grant of $7.5 million for the construction of a facility exclusively for the High. Asked by fund-raisers to "help build a museum big enough for Atlanta," the citizenry responded, and the High raised $20 million. The first curators were hired in 1980, and

construction began the following year on a white postmodern building designed by the architect Richard Meier.

tural elements as the soaring atrium; an emphasis on modernist planes, curves, and lines; and galleries within galleries.

The building, which opened in 1983, tripled the space of the High's previous home and quickly garnered praise; the building's gracefully curved façade on Peachtree Street became an Atlanta landmark. Its four-story atrium, surrounded by a spiraling ramp and capped by skylights, was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's modernist design of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Key features of Meier's design include such strong architec-

The sculptural quality of the High's interior is enhanced by the play of light and shadow reenacted daily in the atrium. In 1984 the American Institute of Architects (AIA) gave it the Honor Award, architecture's highest recognition for excellence in design. In 1991 the AIA cited the museum building as "one of the ten best works of American architecture of the 1980s," and in 2005 it was honored in a U.S. Postal Service stamp series, "Masterworks of Modern Architecture."

In 1992 the museum received a Governor's Award in the Humanities. A $124 million expansion to the High added three new buildings in 2005, more than doubling the gallery space to 93,800 square feet and allowing for larger-scale installations. The striking contemporary buildings, designed by acclaimed architect Renzo Piano, melded with the Meier structure and the Memorial Arts Center, forming what Piano called a "village for the arts." A European-style piazza fosters a sense of enclosure and gives midtown Atlanta a much-needed public space. The expansion also provides room for additional educational programming, a restaurant, and administrative offices.

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Insider Tips Like other fine-art institutions, the High is continually refining its permanent collection. This dynamic institution has forged a twenty-first century model for museum operations that includes collaborations with international institutions, ongoing relationships with major collectors, and high-profile exhibitions. The museum's strategies for collection-building and exhibition development Winclude focusing on more-affordable collecting fields, such as photography, folk and self-taught art, and contemporary art, and devoting substantial attention to exhibitions of modern and contemporary art and to shows organized from important collections.

If you have a backpack or luggage, you can check it in for free at the coat check desk. Save on parking by looking for metered parking on the street. The Atlanta High Museum is also right across the street from the Arts Center MARTA station.

There are tons of shops and restaurants within a block of the museum or you can grab a bite to eat at the on-site cafĂŠ. If you're a Bank of America cardholder, just show your debit or credit card at the ticket counter on the first Sunday of the month and you will get in for free!

2 3

4 5 'House III' by Roy Lichtenstein

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Reasons to Visit the HIGH MUSEUM:

The Atlanta High Museum is one of the nation's leading art museums in the Southeast. Houses 11,000 pieces comprised of American art, European art, African art, decorative art, folk art, photography and more contemporary works. In addition to its main collection featuring Monet, Tournier, Tiepolo and Ernst among others, this Atlanta museum welcomes several visiting exhibitions throughout the year. Hear live jazz music over a glass or two of wine on Friday nights or come on a Thursday for family and youth programs. The Museum Gift Shop features hundreds of unique items including prints of your favorite Van Gogh pieces, jewelry, posters and much more. Atlanta museum welcomes several visiting exhibitions throughout the year. Hear live jazz music over a glass or two of wine on Friday nights or come on a Thursday for family and youth programs. The Museum Gift Shop features hundreds of unique items including prints of your favorite Van Gogh pieces, jewelry, posters and much more.

Bohemian Circus by atlanta.eventful.com

n Interactive Art Evening introducing the visual, performance and underground arts. Including drawings, paintings and fine art photography. This avant-garde evening mixes artist receptions, community figure drawing classes, live experimental jazz and electronic music, and Dj's all while dinning. Truly a different visual art experience. Drawing Session Details: Mondays from 7:30PM to 11PM Apache Cafe provides figure models for artist and photographers to casually drop in and create without a need to pre-register or commit to a multiple week drawing class. Please remember to bring your own supplies. Flow of the night: At Apache Cafe a typical figure/life drawing session (class) the attendees sit around a model either in a semicircle or a full circle. No two students have exactly the same view, thus their drawing or photography will reflect the perspective of the artist's unique location relative to the model. The model often poses on a stand, so attendees can more

Open Figure Drawing and Photography Session @Apache Cafe easily find an unobstructed view, depending on the type of pose, furniture and/or props used. At the beginning of the figure drawing session, the model is often requested to make a series of brief poses in rapid succession. These are called gestures poses, and are typically one to three minutes each. Gesture drawing is a warm-up exercise for many artists, although some artists sketch out the gesture as the first step in every figure drawing. Since the purpose of figure drawing classes is to learn how to draw humans of all kinds, male and female models of all ages, shapes, and ethnicities are usually sought, rather than selecting only beautiful models or those with "ideal figures". The variety of models hired may be limited by the need for them to hold a pose for extended periods.

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'Dickens Revisited by Donald Locke

MOC A

Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia by Robin Fray

he Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, located at 75 Bennett Street in Atlanta, is dedicated to contemporary Georgia art created by artists who were either born in the state or who have made the state their home. The focus of the collection is primarily mid twentieth century to the present and includes works by nationally renowned artists Benny Andrews, Radcliffe Bailey, Beverly Buchanan, Harry Callahan, Howard Finster, and Nellie Mae Rowe. David Golden, president of CGR Advisors, a real estate advisory company, founded the museum in 2002 in Atlanta, and Annette Cone-Skelton, an artist and art consultant. CGR Advisors donated its art collection, which had been curated by

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Cone-Skelton, to the fledgling private, nonprofit institution. As of 2005 the museum housed a permanent collection of more than 250 works by 113 artists in a variety of media, including mixed media, paintings, photographs, prints, and sculptures. From bold color lithographs made by Trena Banks, Joni Mabe, and others for Rolling Stone Press in Atlanta to elegantly composed photographs by John McWilliams, Virginia Warren Smith, and others; the Museum of Contemporary Art embraces diverse media and aesthetics in the works of its permanent collection. Previous exhibitions include the grand opening exhibition of new sculpture by Martin Emanuel; Artists of the Heath Gallery: 1965-1998, compris-

ing solo exhibitions of works by Herbert Creecy, Cheryl Goldsleger, Kojo Griffin, and Hope Hilton; and special exhibitions from the permanent collection, which is accessible online through the museum's Web site. In November 2002 the museum mounted Color, Culture, Complexity, an exhibition curated by Ed Spriggs, of the Hammonds House Galleries in Atlanta, and Dan Talley, co-founder of Art Papers magazine and former director of Nexus Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta. The exhibition, an exploration of the history and current conditions of race relations in America, spotlighted the works of artists from around the country and included digital photographs by Amalia Amaki (of Atlanta and Delaware), computer-generated images by Marcia Cohen (of Atlanta),

To place our artists in a global context, the Museum's exhibitions include Georgia artists and artists from around the world. Our programs promote the visual arts by creating a forum for active interchange between artists and the community.

a triptych painting by Harry DeLorme (of Savannah), iris prints by Robert B. Stewart (of Atlanta), and conceptually derived digital prints by Lisa McGaughey Tuttle (of Atlanta). In addition to its exhibitions, the museum also sponsors ShedSpace, a community-oriented program to support local arts, and the Artist Resource Council, which serves as a conduit between artists and museums throughout Georgia.

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TRANSLATED MARK

WhiteSpace

the

Gallery is far from a traditional art space

by whitespace814.com

'Sui Generis', by Ann Stewart

Curated from the stable of Whitespace artists who have either a traditional or tangential connection to print, each piece interrogates the process of mark making from a mediated view, whether that is an aquatint etching of hybrid objects by Joe Tambiras, or utilizing new technologies with an extruded line from a 3-D printed sculpture by Ann Stewart or an installation of laser printed felt forms by Teresa Cole. Craig Dongoski negotiates an even newer territory through the process of the sonic interpretation of line, while Cassidy Russell sews her monoprints into geometric shapes that merge the realms of fiber and print.

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Ann Stewart Ann Stewart received her MFA in Art from the University of Michigan and a BFA in Painting from Auburn University. She has shown her work at whitespace, International Print Center New York, Robert Henry Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art Georgia, Fay Gold Gallery, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. She has attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Penland School of Crafts, Anchor Graphics, and the Atlanta Printmakers Studio. She received a grant from Idea Capital, which has provided partial funding for the 3d printed sculptures in this exhibition. Causa Sui is Ann Stewart’s first solo exhibition at

iscretely tucked into an 1893 carriage house behind an Inman Park Victorian, Whitespace Gallery is an inviting, elegant space that feels far from a traditional art gallery. Like a speakeasy in the bright sunshine, you have to know it’s there. Whitespace’s proprietress, Susan Bridges, is also not your typical gallery owner. Fun loving, spirited, a font of amusing anecdotes, the ageless Bridges has a zest for life that puts the twenty-something skinny-pants set to shame.

he Translated Mark is an exhibition at Whitespace Gallery of works by artists Craig Dongoski, Joe Tsambiras, Ann Stewart, Cassidy Russell and Teresa Cole. The process of printmaking collectively inspires these five artists, though each artist’s approach is unique and distinctive. Artist Stanley William Hatter referred to printmaking in the twentieth century as journalism of a line; this exhibition reveals contemporary artists pushing the line even further towards a new authority in the carved, etched and extruded line, as well as a musical score.

by whitespace814.com

whitespace, features graphite drawings, intaglio prints, and 3D printed sculptures that continue Stewart’s investigation into the visualization of perception. Causa sui, which is Latin for “cause of itself ”, is a phenomenon that philosopher Jim Holt describes as entities bootstrapping themselves into existence. Using a process of pattern recognition and pattern generation, both finding and fabricating forms, Stewart is negotiating the boundary between randomness and structure. She creates impossible objects and disorienting spaces that swarm, merge, morph, cantilever, implode, and explode. The architectonic structures operate within their own gravitational fields to produce precarious junctures and intricate voids.

Bridges opened her backyard art gallery in 2006, following decades spent in advertising and raising children. The Atlanta architecture firm Bldgs reconceptualized her space, creating a salon that feels at once egg heady and accessible—with clean, refined lines but also exposed brick and old wood that speak to the building’s history. Known for festive openings with themed cocktails, drag queens, and food trucks, Whitespace’s zeitgeist is undoubtedly grounded in Bridges’s experience staging pop-up art shows at underground spaces and warehouses in the 1990s, a trial run for her gallery ownership.

Whitespace spotlights a diverse roster of talent, including many emerging artists. It specializes in creative with hyphenated job titles and far-ranging interests in multiple fields, like stand-up comic Cassidy Russell, bookshop and gallery owner Robin Bernat, and Emory physics department chair Fereydoon Family. From photography to video to sculpture, the space is known for giving untested artists a shot. “I allow the artists a lot of freedom,” says Bridges, whose well-reviewed shows of work by taxidermy photographer Jody Fausett, psychedelic naturalist painter Sarah Emerson, and multitalented filmmaker, muralist, sculptor, and painter Matt Haffner have gained those artists significant footholds in the local art scene. “I can’t imagine ever telling an artist, ‘You’ve got to keep making this work because this is what will sell,’ says Bridges. Whitespace recently hosted the Atlanta Ballet and has a film festival and literary events planned for summer. Artwork by Teresa Cole

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LLS

LI V

W G IN A

by Michelle Khouri & Chris

Why Finding the Best Atlanta Street Art Is Worth Your Effort?

Space Rainbow by Ricky Watts on Krog x Edgewood

A movement was born almost immediately after the first Living Walls conference in 2010. This movement aims to magnify, in both scale and reach, the daring and thoughtful works of local, regional and international artists. Today, massive street art adorns Atlanta’s formerly blank walls, encompassing a range of styles and messages as diverse as the city itself. Use this feature to take a self-guided tour of the city’s most muraled streets. Whether you consider street art to be an artistic masterpiece or a form of vandalism, there are examples around the world that you just have to step back and appreciate for the pure quality of the work. I have done quite a bit of research recently on the argument of street art versus graffiti but I honestly think this is a subjective argument. Everywhere we travel, we appear to stumble across fine examples of artistic beauty and this was certainly the case when we explored the Atlanta street art scene. I have never been a huge proponent of urban artwork and honestly never paid much attention to it. I certainly never had an appreciation which I feel like I am starting to have now. Why has this changed? Simply because of the amount of exposure we have received while visiting a variety of cities and locations around the world. It’s everywhere, whether

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Art installation of eyes and nose made of tin cans and metal is located at the Atlanta BeltLine

n army of color invaded Atlanta’s most neglected neighborhoods six years ago. Living Walls was born from a desire to add vibrancy and beauty to areas of the city falling into disrepair. Local and visiting artists gather in Atlanta for the weeklong conference, which also includes learning opportunities for artists and special events. A creative and entrepreneurial city since its inception, Atlanta is the perfect place for Living Walls to cause a wide ripple with just a single drop of inspiration.

5 1 you approve of it or not. While checking out the best photo spots in Atlanta, we couldn’t help but notice a plethora of amazing street art. We immediately wanted to find out more!

Atlanta Street Art Let’s face it, street art is everywhere! I agree that there are plenty of examples out there that simply destroy the overall aesthetic look of a city, especially when done in a way that lacks creativity, thought and just appears ‘trashy’ (sorry for the urban lingo but I felt it was appropriate here). I think it’s interesting to note that Atlanta has been a prime target for the street art vs. graffiti argument. In 2011, a special Graffiti Task Force was established by the city to abolish a large amount of the graffiti.

However, they emphasized that this was focused solely on exactly this, graffiti and NOT street art. 'If someone spray paints on a piece of property that doesn't belong to them, without permission, that is a crime.' When a police spokesman, Carlos Campos, spoke the above words, he focused his attention on not drawing the line between street art and graffiti. Instead, he suggested that anything painted on a building or object without permission was illegal. Throughout recent years, Atlanta has created several initiatives including the ‘Living Walls’ project in 2012, which attracted artists from all over the world to leave their mark ‘legally’ on a variety of dilapidated facades around the city. This is the type of street art Atlanta is now famous for and we headed out in search of examples during our recent visit to the Georgia capital.

Reasons to Visit the LIVING WALLS:

Living Walls encourages all of us to appreciate the beauty that art can bring – even if it’s not hanging in a museum. The Living Walls Conference has expanded into yearlong programming, with "Concepts." Each Concept will focus on one or two artists at a time and lasts one to three weeks to allow artists to immerse themselves within the neighborhoods. The conference started out as a way to highlight problems facing the city and ended up building a platform for dialogue.

The street art of Living Walls brightens up otherwise dull and ugly portions of the city.

Chasing street art takes you to places in Atlanta you might not otherwise find. Clique / 02.17

{ Little Five Points }

{ Disco Kroger }

{ Krog Street Tunnel + Cabbagetown }

The entire neighborhood of Little Five Points is basically one giant art collective – from the murals welcoming you to L5P, to the paintings covering almost every restaurant and shop, just walking around is an artistic experience.

Only in Atlanta do we name our grocery stores (Murder Kroger, anyone?) Disco Kroger, situated right by Lenox Mall off Piedmont Road in Buckhead, features a massive mural depicting a psychedelic disco scene. The name Disco Kroger actually does have origins – a disco club called Limelight moved next door to this Kroger in the early 80’s, drawing a celebrity following from the likes of Andy Warhol and Rod Stewart. Supposedly after the club closed each night, hundreds would come to the 24 hour Kroger for a late-night snack. A few remnants from Limelight still remain at Disco Kroger, including a disco ball hanging from the ceiling when you walk in.

Perhaps the best area of Atlanta to see street art is at Krog Street Tunnel, connecting the edge of Old Fourth Ward & Inman Park with the neighborhoods of Cabbagetown and Reynoldstown.

The most recognizable piece of L5P art is the entrance to The Vortex, a landmark Atlanta restaurant with a 20 foot high Laughing Skull to welcome you. Venture down a few side alleys (not sketchy at all, right?) to see some of the coolest bits of hidden art, like a mural depicting famous singers from Michael Jackson to Lady Gaga.

Mural by Tommy Bronx on Krog x Edgewood

{ The Atlanta BeltLine } The BeltLine is one of the best places in Atlanta to get outside, commune with nature, and take in some of the best and most unique art in the city. The BeltLine’s public art initiative selects a new crop of artists each year for both continuous and rotating, temporary exhibits. In 2015 alone, over 100 artists presented their work along 4 miles of the BeltLine, primarily concentrated around the Eastside Trail running from Ansley to Inman Park. All different types of art are present on the BeltLine, including massive murals, sculpture, photography, and live

The art of the tunnel is also constantly changing, making for a new experience each time you visit. Old art is painted over to reveal fresh layers, like a new piece in honor of David Bowie during my most recent trip. Venture out of Krog Street Tunnel onto Wylie Street, one of my personal favorite spots in the city for viewing and photographing street art. Walk up and down the street for a unique, almost tapestry-like narrative winding its way down to Reynoldstown, culminating in a defining painting celebrating the African-American history of this diverse neighborhood.

{ Old Fourth Ward + Edgewood } installations. Some of my favorite art on the BeltLine is concentrated right near the Old Fourth Ward Skatepark, including one of the Tiny Doors – this small artist cooperative installs 6-inch doors throughout the city, one of which is on the BeltLine right by the Inman Park access point. The best way to take in the art on the BeltLine is to walk. Start at the entrance adjacent to Krog Street Market, and walk the approximately two miles to the entrance to Piedmont Park at Monroe and Piedmont. My current favorite piece along the BeltLine is a massive Alice-in-Wonderland-sequel mural on the outside of restaurant Two Urban Licks.

The tunnel is incredibly popular amongst street artists and their admirers – it’s commonplace to find someone spray-painting a graffiti masterpiece in the middle of the afternoon while a rapper shoots a music video just steps away.

The Old Fourth Ward neighborhood is full of street art. Multiple projects from Living Walls are situated in O4W, including an installation by local artist Cat Lanta (yes, he paints stylized cartoon cats all over the city) right across the street from my apartment. An expected place to find amazing street art is a few blocks away off the corner of Edgewood and Boulevard, home of famous Atlanta watering holes like Church, Joystick Gamebar, and Sound Table. These murals are some of the most Insta-worthy spots that I’ve found in Atlanta, especially with a perfect skyline backdrop. Mural by Oliver Phi at Cabbagetown

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he BROA D What's drawing millennials to downtown L.A.'s Broad museum by Deborah Vankin

he line is long and chatty, thick with restless, tattooed twenty something. A food truck dispenses vegan ice cream to the selfie-snapping crowd while a young man, with a bushy beard and glasses, reads beat generation poetry beneath an olive tree. The scene is outside downtown L.A.’s Broad museum. Since opening six months ago, it has attracted a decidedly youthful crowd. The average visitor age is 32 — a full 14 years younger than the national average for art museum attendance in the U.S., according to the National Endowment for the Arts’ most recent study. The collection of postwar and contemporary art assembled by genteel, octogenarian philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad has, out of the gate, won over millennials. The Broad’s appeal to young people starts with colorful edgy art, such as Jeff Koons’ glaring, goldhued sculpture of Michael Jackson and his chimp, Bubbles, and Takashi Murakami’s psychedelic-looking, dancing mushrooms. The museum is also located downtown, increasingly an entertainment and nightlife hub. And it’s free.

Young people — munching on hot dogs in line, touring the galleries and gathering on the grassy lawn outside — say they were drawn by the museum’s reputation as anything but stuffy. Instead of security guards, the Broad has “visitor service associates” who roam the galleries and are happy to chat about the art as well as to point people to the nearest restroom. And instead of centuries-old paintings, there are the bold color blocks in Ellsworth Kelly’s “Green Blue Red.” “I identify more with pop art than other types of art,” says pink-haired Marisol Rodriguez, 28, visiting from Mexico City. “It’s just fun.” Then there’s the fact that timed tickets to the Broad are sold out months ahead of time. Young people such as Rodriguez seem to be more willing to wait hours in line than their elders. “I don’t mind waiting, even one hour, because it’s worth it,” Rodriguez says, eyeballing the line unfazed. “And maybe I can find some cool people in line to talk to.”

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Juan Prieto, a 21-year-old waiter from Montebello, had also seen a blitz of Broad museum imagery

online. But he ventured to the museum, despite little knowledge about art, he said, “because of my girlfriend. It’s really, really nice. I like it so far.” The social media star at the Broad is undoubtedly Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away,” with its colorful blitz of glimmering outer space like lights. Like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Rain Room” exhibit, the installation has become an art-selfie magnet and a viral meme on Facebook and Instagram. “I have a lot of artist friends and they’re all talking about it,” says 25-year-old Lindsey Jakstis, who’s visiting the museum from Orange County. “It’s pretty much what everyone’s been posting.”

Indeed, the standby line — typically a 45-minute wait on weekdays, twice that on weekends — is a bustling social scene, with spirited attendees exchanging snacks, gossip and cellphone numbers with new friends. “We got food at the trucks, talked. We waited about an hour, but it only felt like 10 minutes,” says Tiffany Ming, 27, of Long Beach. Many of the young people in line say they found out about the Broad from social media. Seeing the fun that friends were having from afar, in pictures and videos, they didn’t want to fall prey to “FOMO” (fear of missing out). According to an on-site survey, conducted by Morey Group for the Broad, 1 in 4 visitors heard about the museum

through someone else’s social media feed. Hayley Alnaal, 24, and Selena Borrayo, 23, both of Garden Grove, didn’t have to brave the standby line. They say there’s been such buzz about the Broad on their friends’ social media accounts that they made their reservations months ago. “I’ve heard a lot of friends talking about it,” Alnaal says. “On Facebook, Instagram you see pictures. It looked fun, interesting, cool.” “I came because she told me about it!” Borrayo jokes, pointing to Alnaal. “She showed me pictures on Instagram and Yelp. It looked fun.”

'Tulips' by Jeff Koons

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Murakami’s vibrant, 82-foot-long painting, “In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow” — featuring demons, dragons and ships roiling in a tsunami — is also one of the Broad’s biggest youth attractions. The museum says Glenn Ligon’s neon sign “Double America 2,” Koons’ multicolored, metallic “Tulips,” Robert Therrien’s towering dining room set “Under the Table” and the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat are social media hits as well. The Broad has also been a draw for celebrities — they in turn have fueled millennial interest. Katy Perry, Kate Hudson, January Jones, Reese Witherspoon and James Franco have visited and posted photos on their social media. British singer-songwriter Adele filmed a video inside the Kusama room for the backdrop of her February Brit Awards live performance of “When We Were Young.” A photo of the singer inside the exhibit, posted on her Instagram account, generated more than 665,000 likes. “I saw an Instagram snap from Katy Perry from awhile ago, and I was so blown away by the photograph — I had no idea what it was — and then I showed it to my creative director and it happens to be by her favorite 'Double America 2' by Glenn Ligon

artist,” Adele said in a video interview with the Broad. The museum posted the interview on its Facebook page, generating more than 180,000 views and hundreds of comments along the lines of: “When are we going to goooooooooo,” Farah Thustra posted. “I wanted to go before, but now I need to,” Jenny Dally commented.

'It has always been our mission to introduce contemporary art to the broadest possible audience.' — Eli Broad

Of the more than 400,000 people who have streamed through the Broad’s doors so far, 6 out of 10 said their ethnicity was other than Caucasian and 70% were younger than 34. “It has always been our mission to introduce contemporary art to the broadest possible audience,” Eli Broad says. “As a result, we’ve succeeded in attracting a diverse and young audience.” Among other local museums, LACMA says its average age is 40 (still below the national average). The Hammer Museum doesn’t collect visitor data, but officials there say it’s become a hangout for students from nearby UCLA. The Museum of Contemporary Art, across the street from the Broad, also doesn’t collect visitor data, but a spokeswoman said the visitors skew young.

That goes against the national trend. Youth attendance at art museums and galleries has declined over the last decade, according to the National Endowment for the Arts — it’s dropped at a roughly 20% rate among 18- to 34-year-olds from 2002 to 2012. Art museums, however, draw younger audiences, on average, than performance-oriented events, such as classical music concerts, the ballet and opera. The National Endowment for the Arts attributes that to the way art museums are embracing technology. At the Broad, for example, guests can make reservations on iPads for timed entry to special exhibits, and the museum will text people back when they may enter. That the Broad is nestled among other downtown museums, art galleries and restaurants, says American

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Alliance of Museums’ Elizabeth Merritt, doesn’t hurt. “Unlike traditional forms of performance arts, museum visits can be relatively spontaneous and unscheduled. And we’re very much in an of-the-moment social environment right now — people want to use their mobile devices to decide what they want to do right now, and then meet up with their friends and do it,” she says.

From top left: artworks in the Broad; 'Gold Fish on Table" sculpture by Roy Lichtenstein

Unless, of course, there’s a line. Late in the afternoon, Jakstis and Ming were still waiting — more than an hour now — to see the Kusama exhibit that their friends had been raving about. But they were undaunted. “When art is this intriguing and generating this much conversation,” Jakstis says, “I think it’s worth it.” Clique / 02.17

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