Robert W. Woodruff Arts Center History

Anyone who has been to Atlanta will come to know that the Woodruff Arts Center is an extremely important element of the life in this place. Located in the middle of town, the center provides the people of Atlanta a great variety of performing arts and exhibitions. The choice that is available in the center ranges from traditional forms of performing arts to the more modern and avant-garde ones.

The community in Atlanta has always cherished great art but there was a time when the cultural side of the city was in great danger. In 1962, a plane that was carrying the most eminent performing arts personalities of Atlanta's crashed. The crash resulted in the death of all the arts community leaders except two. The remaining 130 that perished took a large part of Atlanta's performing arts talent away.

Being fond of the performing arts personalities, the entire city went into mourning. But once the city got over the initial grief, they moved in to action. All plans with regards to performances that were in progress were shelved and new ones were initialized. The city planned to create a memorial for all those who had lost their lives in the crash.

Many committees were formed and a large number of individuals, businesses and corporate offices send their contributions towards this effort. There were some who even donated amounts as high as $4 million. This was the beginning of the Atlanta Arts Alliance. The anonymous donor was later found to be the Woodruff Foundation that has been created by the Coca-Cola based magnate Robert W. Woodruff. He accepted and admitted to the large contribution he had made and got involved with the project with fervor.

Ever since the inception of the Woodruff Arts Center, performing arts have never seen a dull day in the city. The city has never forgotten the manner in which arose as a phoenix.

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