Arts Agenda: Outdoor art – ARTS ATL

Each week, ArtsATL delivers a critic’s short list of the shows, exhibitions, concerts and events we recommend for the coming weeks within one discipline or venue type in the kaleidoscope of Atlanta arts and culture. This week, we’re highlighting art in outdoor spaces.

::

Art on the Beltline

The Atlanta Beltline features one of the largest temporary public art exhibits and linear galleries in the United States, located along the Beltline corridor. You’ll find sculptures, murals, performances and other experiences there, some permanent and others on a temporary basis. Check out their website for a list of all the artists and works you’ll find there.

Fernbank Museum

The Fernbank Museum’s Spirit Guides: Fantastical Creatures from the Workshop of Jacobo and María Ángeles is in its final weeks. The exhibit showcases the vision of renowned Oaxacan artists Jacobo and María Ángeles, offering visitors an unparalleled journey into the spiritual landscape of Southern Mexico’s indigenous traditions. It runs through August 3.

Atlanta’s street art

ArtsATL has a long list of stories about Atlanta’s street art and murals. From East Atlanta and Cabbagetown to Pittsburgh and Adair Park, take a deep dive into what you’ll see in many of Atlanta’s neighborhoods.

Tiny Doors ATL

Tiny Doors ATL, the vision of local artist Karen Anderson Singer, has installed little doors all over town. There are more than 30 of these whimsical entryways to see, and the Tiny Doors ATL website has a map to help you find them.

Atlanta Botanical Garden

Alice’s Wonderland features 38 larger-than-life sculptures in seven installations inspired by Lewis Carroll’s timeless tales, plus Shaggy Dog and the now-iconic Earth Goddess, two pieces in the Garden’s permanent collection from the 2013-14 exhibitions Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger Than Life and A New Kingdom of Plant Giants. Enchanted Trees by Poetic Kinetics marks the return of the artists behind the Garden’s 2021 exhibition of a signature rainbow-hued “Skynet” billowing above the Canopy Walk. The 10 sculptures are scattered throughout the Garden.

Woodruff Park

This summer, downtown Atlanta is getting a dose of enchantment with Misting Mushrooms, an interactive art installation that’s part cooling station and part musical playground created by LeMonde Studio. See it through August 30 at Woodruff Park.

Chatttahoochee Nature Center

How about some of nature’s own art? The Chattahoochee Nature Center’s most popular annual exhibit is back for its 12th summer. Get up close and personal with hundreds of native butterflies surrounded by colorful nectar plants. 

Midtown Atlanta

Public art is everywhere in Midtown Atlanta, and the Midtown Alliance has a helpful website that includes both a map of the works and a page for each one.

Blue Heron Nature Preserve

Blue Heron Nature Preserve hosts an annual outdoor exhibit that has already happened for 2025, but you can still see art on the grounds of the Preserve. They have a permanent collection that includes pieces by previous artists-in-residence.

Abernathy Sculpture Garden

Located just east of the Playable Art Park at Abernathy Greenway, visitors can stroll through the Abernathy Sculpture Garden to see eight previous winners of the Art Sandy Springs Open Sculpture Contest.

City of Atlanta Public Art Collection

The Public Art Program is tasked with the maintenance and conservation of the City of Atlanta Public Art Collection, which includes 139 public artworks. The collection contains significant artworks by local, regional and nationally acclaimed artists, including Isamu Noguchi, Thornton Dial, Sol LeWitt, Lynn Linnemeier and Elizabeth Catlett. To find out where these artworks and monuments are located, visit the Google map.

Folk Art Park

Originally designed and created as part of the Public Spaces Program of the Corporation for Olympic Development in Atlanta, Folk Art Park was the Georgia Department of Transportation’s first public art project — reclaiming several leftover portions of two cement highway bridges above downtown’s north-south interstate connector.