The Atlanta History Center’s Sheffield Hale calls the Buckhead museum’s newest exhibition “a game-changer.”
The center will soon open a new exhibit in its Goizueta Gallery, “The Goizueta Children’s Experience.” A 5,000-square-foot immersive and interactive bilingual exhibition with the theme “Our Great Big City,” it will feature several interactive stations for kids to learn about Atlanta’s history. The grand opening is Sunday, Jan 12th from 1:30pm – 4pm.
“We really want to engage families more in a dedicated way, expand the number of people who know about us,” said Hale, the center’s president and CEO. “There are a lot of people who are searching for children’s activities, and hopefully this will be their latest one. We want to add memberships and grow our younger members’ number. It’s also important to our mission to have learning come through play. That’s a very important way for children to learn.”
The center is partnering with the Goizueta Foundation on the exhibit. The foundation was started by Roberto C. Goizueta in 1992, and its mission is to provide opportunities for children to succeed through education. Goizueta, a Cuban who with his family fled to the United States when Fidel Castro took control of his home country, served as the chair and CEO of the Coca-Cola Co. from 1981 to 1997.
Goizueta, who died in 1997 of lung cancer, guided Coke through a period of immense success during his tenure, including increasing the company’s stock value from $4.3 billion to more than $152 billion. The Goizueta Gallery, which opened in 1993, was named in the memory of Goizueta’s son Carlos, who died of leukemia.
Hale said the foundation was included in the new exhibit for two reasons. First, it’s in the foundation’s Goizueta Gallery, which previously housed “Shaping Traditions,” a folk art exhibition that was on display at the center for about 30 years. Second, Hale added, the foundation has been involved with the center’s gardens for at least 10 years, “and that’s changed and elevated what we could do with the gardens.”
“So when we were talking to them about what we might do, we had a number of ideas,” he said. “One of the ideas … is we needed a dedicated children’s space indoors. We had leaned on the houses, the trails and other things outdoors [as kids’ exhibitions]. We didn’t have anything inside, like any other museum in Atlanta or the world has. It fit beautifully with the memory of their son, who died. There’s a corner dedicated to Carlos.”
“Our Great Big City” will be on display for 18 months, through May 2026, and the exhibit’s themes to follow will be up for a year each.
“I don’t think I know of any other museum I the world to do that,” Hale said of the rotating themes. “We think it’s groundbreaking and one of the reasons to bring it back.”
In mid January at a date to be determined, the center will host an opening day celebration that will include hands-on interactive activities in the center’s atrium for children to explore beyond the exhibition walls and goodie bags with Children’s Experience-related items.
Highlights of the exhibition include a Mini Fox Theatre, where kids can imitate a night at the historic venue; The Varsity’s Silly Scent Station, which is designed to mimic Atlanta’s legendary drive-in restaurant experience in the 1930s; and Tiny Toddler Town, which is inspired by Atlanta’s lively neighborhoods.
Foundation leaders said they’re excited about the new exhibit.
“As a board member of both the Atlanta History Center and The Goizueta Foundation, and as a mom of young children, I am thrilled to see the Goizueta Children’s Experience come to life,” said Caroline Rawls Strumph, a trustee with both the foundation and center and Roberto Goizueta’s granddaughter. “The opportunity for children across Atlanta to come and learn while also experiencing the city’s great history is exciting—I know that the Goizueta Children’s Experience will be a special place for families in Atlanta and beyond for many years to come.”
Olga Goizueta Rawls, the foundation’s chair and CEO and Roberto Goizueta’s daughter, added, “The Goizueta Children’s Experience is an exciting new exhibit that offers weekly programming and spaces to learn and play. We wanted to ensure that there was an emphasis on bilingual programming, incorporating Spanish fully throughout the space, as well as accessibility for all children to enjoy the Children’s Experience.
“My father, Roberto C. Goizueta, considered Atlanta his adopted hometown and believed in the power of education for young people—I cannot think of a better place than the Atlanta History Center for children to learn about the city and enhance their education through play, experiential learning, and intentional programming.” Admission to the exhibit is free for AHC members ( a family membership is just $134 per year). Individual tickets are $27 for adults, $24 for children 4 and older and free for children 0 to 3 years. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit https://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/event/goizueta-childrens-experience-grand-opening/
Doves have several symbolic meanings, ranging from peace to hope to love to mourning.
A new exhibition of about 1,300 origami doves opened in November at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church’s sanctuary in Buckhead as part of its 100-year anniversary celebration.
The Rev. Bill Britt, the church’s senior pastor, said the doves mean “different things to different people.”
“Some see them as a reminder of hope that the dove was a symbol of hope in the Old Testament,” he said. “Others see them as a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, a New Testament idea. The one I didn’t anticipate is people seeing them as the communion of saints, people who have died and are watching over us.”
The doves will be on display until June 9. Peachtree Road UMC is one of just three United States locations and seven worldwide places exhibiting them. The original U.S. dove display was created by German artist Michael Pendry, and it was at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and then the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, said Brittany Charron, Peachtree Road UMC’s director of evangelism and hospitality. Because Pendry wasn’t available to create Peachtree Road UMC’s exhibit, Taro’s Origami Studio in Brooklyn, New York, did it.
“As a [church] member for over 20 years, and a member who has one flying for someone I’ve lost recently, for me there’s comfort,” Charron said. “There’s peace and hope. We hope people feel that peace and hope, We also hope they feel the presence of a loved one and of God. The doves are taking the word of God out into,” the community.”
The doves fly from the back of the sanctuary to the front, “capturing the feeling of transcendence,” a news release stated.
“It’s a beautiful symbol of our faith, and what I like about what our artist has done, even though [the doves] are static, they feel like a flock in motion,” Britt said. “The way they flow, they go from the balcony to the nave of the church, down towards the pulpit and then they turn and head up through the cupola. It gives me the sense that they’re in motion.. That movement leads us into the place of worship and out into the church and into the world. It’s that whole movement thing that inspires me.”
Charron said she was “just blown away” when she first viewed the doves in the church.
“I looked at them and I stood at the pulpit side underneath the stained glass windows, and I looked up and they were flying down from the balcony, and I was overcome. I sort of couldn’t believe them. I was transfixed,” she said, later adding she’s in awe each time she returns to the sanctuary to see the display.
The church hosts docent-led dove tours on Sundays and Wednesdays. Group tours are available, too.
Once the display ends, the people who have sponsored a dove can pick them up. Each dove will be embossed with the church’s centennial logo.
Britt joked that he hoped church service attendees would, during his sermons, pay attention to him and not the doves.
“It’s a fitting tribute to our 100 years of ministry, our centennial,” he said. “The fact it will be here reminds us of who we are and our mission.”
For more information, including how to book a tour or sponsor a dove (for a $100 donation), visit https://www.prumc.org/doves/. Charron said there’s a limited number of unsponsored doves, so she suggests you act fast.
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