The High Museum of Art, founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta 's Midtown arts and business district, the High has over 11,000 works of art in its permanent collection. The High's first permanent home came in 1926 with the donation by Mrs. Joseph M. High of her family's residence on Peachtree Street. In 1955, the Museum moved to a new brick structure adjacent to the old High house. After 122 Georgia art patrons died in a plane crash on a Museum-sponsored European tour in 1962, the Atlanta Arts Alliance was founded in their memory, and the Atlanta Memorial Arts Center opened in 1968, constructed around the existing Museum. In 1979, Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff offered a $7.5 million challenge grant to build a new facility; Museum officials matched and exceeded the grant, generating a total of $20 million.
