James March-April 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 53
n January, when the
Atlanta History Center
opened its new “Goizueta Children’s Experience,” it marked the beginning of
an 18-month celebration of its 100th
anniversary.
The center, which opened in
1926, plans to update all of its existing long-term exhibits as part of
its big birthday party, said Sheffield
Hale, its president and CEO. The
“Goizueta Children’s Experience” is
the center’s first indoor kids’ exhibition and replaced “Shaping Traditions,” an exhibit that was there for
about 30 years. “That is a monumental way for us to have
families bring children
into the museum,”
Hale said.
“We’ve already seen a dramatic increase in memberships. We see little
kids and we see their parents. We’re
understanding they’ll have a regular
place to visit not only during these
cold winter months but also warmer
times of year, when they can visit the
outdoor spaces, including the historic houses and goats.”
The center sits on a 33-acre
property in Buckhead and includes
two main buildings plus the Smith
Farm, the Swan House, Swan Coach
House, the Wood Cabin, the Victorian and Lee playhouses, seven gardens, the Swan Woods and Veterans
Park. The Margaret Mitchell House,
which is on the National Register of
Historic Places, serves as a second
campus in Midtown. It’s named after the “Gone with the Wind” author
who once lived there.
One of the center’s most prized
exhibits is “Cyclorama: The Big
Picture,” which features
the giant “Battle
of Atlanta” Civil War battle painting
that was moved from its Grant Park
location to the center in 2017 and
restored along the way.
“We have these two campuses
where you can step into multiple
historic houses with the center and
the museum itself with a number of
world-class exhibits, with most recently the Cyclorama space,” said Pola
Changnon, the center’s chief content
officer. “You see that there versus
where it was and recognize we could
do so much more as the history center
to provide historical context with
some historic houses.”
Changnon said in similar
fashion, the center reopened the
Mitchell House space in July after
it was closed since 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
CEO IS A HISTORY BUFF
Hale, the center’s leader since
2012, has been involved with it for
nearly four decades. A history lover
M A RC H //A PRIL 2025
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