High Museum of Art Director Rand Suffolk Is Creating New Models of Audience Engagement

"The stakes are very high, and the need to get it right is more important than ever."

High Museum of Art director Rand Suffolk has a well-earned reputation for his commitment to collaborative community engagement and more equitable access—so much so that a search for ‘art museums reaching more diverse audiences’ results in more than a few links to stories about what he’s done for not just the High but also the Philbrook before that. Namely, implemented engagement strategies that increased membership, attendance and program participation. In the case of the High, that growth notably reflected the demographics of the surrounding region (Artnet News called it a “valuable case study” in audience diversification).

Strategies explored at the High since Suffolk’s arrival in 2015 have included increasing the acquisition and exhibition of artworks by women, LGBTQ and BIPOC artists; reducing admission fees; a 2018 expansion and redesign that added dedicated space for families; and implementing hyper-local marketing campaigns. “We’ve tried very hard to dovetail our strengths with the community’s needs and interests,” he told Observer in February.

Of course, what’s happening at the High isn’t happening in a vacuum. Despite some headlines bemoaning the fact that Atlanta’s art scene just isn’t flourishing fast enough, the city’s status as a cultural destination is no longer really in question. Atlanta’s art galleries are mounting politically and socially relevant museum-quality shows. Underground Atlanta is now home to a thriving ecosystem of DIY art spaces, studios and galleries. Art advisor Kendra Walker founded Atlanta Art Week in 2022, and in October, the city will get its own art fair: Atlanta Art Fair. As Donovan Johnson, director of Johnson Lowe Gallery, told the New York Times last year, “The rest of the world better pay attention to what’s happening in Atlanta.”

They should also pay specific attention to what’s happening at the High Museum as Suffolk continues to innovate. We caught up with him to ask about what successful community engagement looks like, the Atlanta art scene and running a museum in an increasingly complex world.

You’ve been a champion of doing whatever it takes to foster more community engagement (reduced entry fees, exhibition diversification, etc.). What kind of results have you seen?  

We’re focused on being a place where all Atlantans are comfortable coming together, so we’ve worked very hard to become a profoundly different magnet within our community. Consequently, our visitor demographics have markedly changed. For instance, we’ve been super intentional about engaging the next two or three generations of end users, and we’ve seen the average age of our visitors skew much younger during the past 8+ years. Last year, 77 percent of our visitors were under the age of 55, and 58 percent were under the age of 35.

Another great demographic shift has involved race and ethnicity. In 2016, we averaged 15 percent BIPOC participation. Last year, that number was 57 percent. In fact, we’ve averaged 52 percent BIPOC participation over the past six years. That’s excluding schoolchildren. When compared to the racial demographics of metro Atlanta (51 percent BIPOC), we’re now actively reflecting the audience we serve.

Changes like these have been remarkably affirming. Equally humbling and important, however, has been the willingness of these same visitors to support us via membership. In fact, over the past seven years, we’ve seen our membership jump from 26,000 households to over 41,000.  That’s a nearly 60 percent increase.

Were any of the changes you enacted met with pushback?

We’re far and away the largest visual arts organization in Atlanta. With that comes an incredible range of expectations about our exhibitions and programs. Much of the criticism we receive is typically under the rubric of “you should be doing more of (fill in the blank).” It’s a delicate balance, and I’m sure we don’t always get it exactly right, but I sincerely hope our community believes that we’re trying hard to be the art museum Atlanta deserves. The flip side is that, although we can’t be all things to all people, our scale and resources help us deliver the breadth and quality of experience where many will see some aspect of themselves reflected in their museum.

I read that the High concentrates its marketing in a three-to-five-mile radius around the museum. Why is that?

Full disclosure: that discipline is strategically evolving. Our focus is the city of Atlanta, and from a missionary perspective, we realized that nearly every demographic we could hope to engage was within that radius. In other words, it was a target area that allowed us to be strategically focused and broadly inclusive at the same time.

What trends are you seeing in the museum space and how do you see those influencing the High in the future?

Museums everywhere are wrestling with the very real issues of sustainability, relevance and accessibility—all within the framework of a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world. The stakes are very high, and the need to get it right is more important than ever. As I mentioned before, the High is trying to become a place where all of Atlanta is comfortable coming together. Because when we do get it right, there’s something incredibly powerful and remarkably generative about being a space that can harness all this talent, diversity and energy to create positive social impact.

What’s unique or special about the Atlanta art scene?

While blessed with a powerful history, Atlanta is nonetheless a city for the future. The music industry, and now the film industry, firmly established the city as a creative center; we continue to benefit from our nation’s reverse migration that’s bringing new perspectives and progressive vision to the South in general, but Atlanta specifically. Our options for higher education are among the best in the country, and we’re home to nearly 20 Fortune 500 company headquarters. Feeding all of this is an incredible entrepreneurial spirit that continues to position Atlanta as a destination for new talent and energy. The result is a growing critical mass of vitality delivering new galleries, artist collectives and creative networks—even a new art fair coming this autumn.

Can you tell me a little bit about how the current Tyler Mitchell show came to be? 

In 2022, a key donor, John Auerbach, provided funding that allowed the Museum to acquire Tyler’s work The Hewitt Family (2021). Shortly thereafter, Tyler came home—he’s a native Atlantan—to visit family and stopped in to see the work installed. During that visit, he and Michael Rooks, our curator of modern and contemporary art, started a conversation about the possibility of an exhibition. As the dialogue continued, one of our photography curators, Maria L. Kelly, also got involved. Given the caliber and character of Tyler’s practice, it wasn’t a difficult decision to find a slot on our exhibition calendar. The fact that he’s one of Atlanta’s own was icing on the cake.

Finally, what are your personal High Museum must-sees?  

What a question! There is strong, compelling work in every gallery we have. That said, I think an important through-line is our commitment to the work of the American South. While that doesn’t exclusively define our collecting focus, it certainly highlights some key areas of distinction among peer institutions across the country. Whether that’s decorative arts, photography, self-taught or American art, you’ll see that sense of place embraced and reflected in poignant ways.