For the past two decades, Atlanta has been billing itself as an International City, yet until a few years ago one would have been hard-pressed to find anything but English-speaking shops anywhere in the city. Today’s Atlanta is international, with entire sections of town that can be claimed as Korean, Chinese, or Hispanic. In fact, we’ve become so diverse that in Duluth an ordinance was passed requiring signage in English as well as the clientele’s language so that police officers and the fire department would be able to figure out just where they were supposed to show up when there was a problem. The area’s immigrant population has rapidly grown to the point that areas such as Buford Highway and Sandy Springs are now seeing their second or third “wave” of nationalities setting up shop (literally).
Our city’s excellent location as a transportation hub, its role as the economic capital of the South, and its welcoming climate have made it a magnet for tourists and new residents alike, not only from the United States but also from all over the globe. As people from other nations have taken advantage of Atlanta’s welcome, the city’s demographic makeup has become increasingly international.
Since the 1970s, Atlanta has experienced a 500-plus percent increase in its foreign-born population, representing about 80 countries and speaking more than 100 different languages. According to recent population surveys, there are now well over 550,000 foreign-born residents in metro Atlanta, about 10.3 percent of the population. The U.S. Census indicates that Hispanic and Asian populations are both on the increase. Between 2000 and 2004, the Latino population grew by 36 percent while the Asian population grew by 33 percent. A great many of these ethnic group members live in DeKalb County. In DeKalb’s Cross Keys High School, students come from 65 different countries and speak more than 75 separate, distinct languages and major dialects. Gwinnett County is the second most populated county for foreign-born residents. In Gwinnett’s Norcross Elementary School, for example, children in the English as a Second Language classes speak 38 different native tongues.
As the number of international Atlantans has grown, so has the marketplace for international products and services. The number and variety of businesses and social organizations each community supports are empirical evidence of the community’s own particular tastes as well as a graphic demonstration of its buying power.
This chapter has been compiled with three groups of readers in mind: international visitors to our city, new Atlantans who have moved here from other countries, and everyone who enjoys the excitement of learning about other cultures without having to cross borders to do it. You’ll find international shopping opportunities in Atlanta, currency exchange information, and a sampling of some of the city’s many multicultural social and educational groups. Atlanta area consulates of foreign governments are listed for the benefit of visitors who need to speak with a diplomatic representative of their home nation during their visit.
You can find international dining in the various ethnic categories of our Restaurants chapter. There are about 10 foreign-language papers published in our city, some of which are noted in our Media chapter. Many of these publications are available at the shops that attract a foreign-born clientele. Newspapers from all over the globe are distributed at some area newsstands.
A transportation hub from its beginning, Atlanta naturally became a retail center as well. Just two years after the Civil War, more than 250 stores were wheeling and dealing in Atlanta. (Remember all the money Scarlett O’Hara and her second husband, Frank Kennedy, made with their store and lumberyard during Reconstruction?) Atlanta is nothing if not a booming retail market with amazing extremes. Here you can shop Saks, Tiffany & Co., Gucci, Cartier, and Neiman Marcus in megamalls that have become tourist attractions in themselves, while just a few rail stops away, you can shop the thrift stores to find designer jeans for less than $10. Every weekend with halfway decent weather, you’ll find street after street of yard sales. Telephone poles are plastered with signs advertising upcoming yard sales, and the Yard Sales section in Creative Loafing and the Garage Sales section in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution offer the organized shopper who doesn’t want to waste time aimlessly roaming the blocks a plan of attack.
Here’s a glimpse of some of Atlanta’s best-known retail centers and some lesser-known ones, too. We start at the city’s malls and continue to outlets, shopping districts, antiques, thrift stores, consignment shops, farmers’ markets, bookstores, music stores, and New Age shopping venues. Look to our International Atlanta chapter for some intriguing shopping destinations that reflect our city’s cultural diversity.
From the early days, Atlantans have had a taste for big-city entertainment. These days, it is no longer necessary to leave town to have the best cultural experiences. Within the last decade there has been tremendous growth in the Atlanta gallery and theater scene. In fact, an increasing number of Atlanta productions have made it successfully to off-Broadway and Broadway stages, and many of Atlanta’s visual artists make fine livings right here, thank you very much.
With our ever-increasing population and our position as a rail hub, Atlanta has always been a natural stop for touring theater and opera companies, orchestras, and lecturers. Our cultural interests were evident even during the tough years of Reconstruction when the arts were becoming big business: Two new opera houses opened in 1866, less than two years after Atlanta was put to the torch.
In 1882 Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and apostle of Aestheticism, stopped in Atlanta near the end of a very successful U.S. lecture tour. (The long-haired, then 27-year-old was so well known here that a local man, Smith Clayton, had made a name for himself impersonating Wilde in a comedy act called “Wild Oscar.”) During that visit to Atlanta, Wilde urged the audience to support the arts and encourage young artists.
As years passed and the city grew, Atlantans, wearied of importing their art from elsewhere, decided to heed Wilde’s urgings and formed the city’s first performance companies. The Atlanta Ballet danced its inaugural season in 1929; the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra first tuned up in 1945. In the 1970s and ’80s, entrepreneurial directors and their supporters boldly launched theater groups in storefronts and attics. Some of these modest efforts survived to become leading Atlanta companies with widespread reputations for innovative theater.
Today Atlanta’s position as the cultural capital of the South affords patrons an array of arts options. The presence of both traditional and experimental arts organizations means that neither the classics nor avant-garde works are neglected: A typical year’s offerings include traditional Shakespeare, symphony, and grand opera as well as adult-oriented puppet theater, postmodern psychological drama, and alternative productions of well-known works.
You can find varied offerings in the visual arts, too. Besides such well-known venues as the architecturally renowned High Museum of Art and Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum, the city has myriad private and public galleries that show a variety of artists and styles. Traditional, primitive, and modern painting, sculpture, studio crafts, drawing, photography, and site-specific pieces are part of the smorgasbord of artistic offerings on view at any given time in our city’s vibrant gallery scene. We’ve listed a sampling of the many fine galleries in Atlanta. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a more complete listing of galleries and exhibits in its Saturday Living section. Also check Creative Loafing’s Happenings section under Visual Arts.
We’ve organized this chapter into the following categories: Performing Arts, including Music, Dance, and Theater, in Atlanta and Beyond Atlanta; and Visual Arts, including Museums, Arts Centers and Venues, and Galleries, in Atlanta and Beyond Atlanta.
Call for performance dates and ticket information. Keep in mind that you save money by purchasing series or subscription tickets. We’ll let you know when a group’s performance venue is different than the address given after its name.