Displaying items by tag: atlanta symphony orchestra

Christmas came early for the Woodruff Arts Center, which announced Friday morning that it has received a $38 million grant from the Woodruff Foundation.

The largest gift in the Midtown art center’s 46-year history includes $25 million in endowment matching funds — including support for full-time musician positions with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra — and $13 million for capital improvements. Those capital funds, which do not require a match, will support a complete renovation of Alliance Theatre performance, education and public spaces.

The renovation will be so major for the Alliance spaces in the Memorial Arts Building, which have not significantly changed since the building opened in 1968, that the theater will have to secure a temporary home for at least one full season.

Three marble panels depicting children singing and playing music will go on tour in the United States beginning in 2014. Created by Italian sculptor Luca della Robbia for the Florence Cathedral’s organ loft, the panels will go on view at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta from October 25, 2014 until January 11, 2015.

The panels were removed from the Cathedral in 1688 during a renovation and eventually ended up in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence, which is lending them for the first tour of its kind in the US.

Due to the panels’ subject and history, the exhibition will include audible church music organized in part by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.