9 essential Atlanta arts events this weekend

Each week, ArtsATL curates a selection of the most exciting arts and culture events happening in Atlanta this weekend, highlighting nine must-see experiences.

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Thursday

Hambidge Hive Auction

The American Craft Council and The Hambidge Center will host a collaborative opening reception celebrating Atlanta’s creative community while launching two major initiatives: the 2026 Hambidge Hive Auction and ACC’s announcement of the 2027 ACC Atlanta Fair. The auction’s opening reception takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on March 19 at Hambidge Hive.

Atlanta Documentary Film Festival 

The 21st annual Festival will offer new documentary shorts and features from emerging and established filmmakers, along with Q&As and filmmaker mixers and parties at Synchronicity Theatre from March 19 through March 22. Read our story about The Tree Economy, a film by James Schroeder that will be screening at the Festival.

Friday

Dionne Warwick

The peerless vocalist will bring her timeless catalog of hits, a list that starts with 1962’s “Don’t Make Me Over,” to Atlanta Symphony Hall on March 20. Rescheduled from October 11.

Dance Canvas Choreographer Career Development Initiative showcase

The 18th annual event draws applicants from around the country, and this year’s program will include work from Maia Jones, Nia Lancelin and Cecily Davis of Atlanta; Christina Carlos, who splits her time between Atlanta and Chicago; KHILA, based in both Atlanta and Philadelphia; Dwayne Cook from Houston; Jerigray Eduav of Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Gabriel Speller from Fort Worth, Texas.

Saturday

Refresh

ABV Gallery’s spring group exhibition is a celebration of the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s 50th anniversary and will include a massive orchid installation, plus a space to learn about the Garden’s conservation efforts. The opening reception from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on March 21 will also include the solo exhibition Sami Jacq: Where The Light Is.

Ars Sonora Atlanta

Zorica Pavlović (soprano), Charles Iner (theorbo), Brian Bishop (organ) and special guest Mia Mangano (viola da gamba) are the featured players in What Remains: Tenebrae and Lament in the French Baroque at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church at 7:30 p.m. on March 21.

Atlanta Freedom Bands

New Artistic Director O’Shae Best leads the ensembles in a celebration of the history, beauty and people of the Peach State with Georgia on our Minds at 7 p.m. on March 21 at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College, showcasing works by composers from Georgia and those with a Georgia connection. The program’s centerpiece is John and Jim by Viet Cuong, a graduate of Lassiter High School, now a professor at the Curtis Institute of Music. The work poignantly tells the story of John Arthur and Jim Obergefell, the lead plaintiffs in the landmark Supreme Court decision for marriage equality. AFB will also debut Solstice by Brady Chandler, a music major at the University of West Georgia and a participant in AFB’s Student Composer Residency Program.

Seasons of Strength

This weekend marks the world premiere of this unusual project, which melds more than 100 recorded voices of Coweta County tornado survivors with Max Richter’s Recomposed (a re-imagined version of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons) performed live by musicians of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra with Southern Arc Dance. The premiere, which takes place at Newnan’s Unity Baptist Church, marks the fifth anniversary of an EF-4 tornado with 170 mph winds that tore through Coweta on March 26, 2021. Performances are at 7 p.m. on March 21 and 2 p.m. on March 22.

Sunday

Klezmer: old, new and NOW! with the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars

Blending traditional klezmer with the funk, R&B and Dixieland sounds of the ensemble’s namesake city, the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars will perform as part of the Levison Family Music Series at the Breman at 5 p.m. on March 22, with a reception preceding the show at 4 p.m.

More things to do this weekend and beyond

Georgia Metro Dance Theatre presents Don Quixote at the Jennie T. Anderson Theatre in Marietta at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. March 21 and 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. March 22 … The Emory Chamber Music Society’s next Cooke Noontime Concert features pianist Jason Kwak, regents’ and university distinguished professor of piano at Texas State University, performing music of Scarlatti and Brahms’ Sonata in F Minor at noon on March 20 in Ackerman Hall at the Michael C. Carlos Museum … Onstage Atlanta’s latest production is Neil Simon’s comedy Last of the Red Hot Lovers, opening on March 20 and running through April 5 … Akira Kurosawa didn’t just make samurai films. He made modern dramas, too, like the masterful kidnapping detective thriller High and Low (1963), which was recently reconfigured by Spike Lee in his 2025 film Higher 2 Lowest. Catch a screening as part of the Emory Cinematheque series at Emory University’s White Hall at 7:30 p.m. March 25 … Pat Metheny continues the evolution of his revolving band project Side Eye with a tour featuring new music. The lineup includes pianist/keyboardist Chris Fishman, drummer Joe Dyson and Jermaine Paul on bass. Metheny comes to Symphony Hall on March 23 … The Conyers Cherry Blossom Festival brings arts and crafts vendors, live music, cultural performances, international foods, children’s activities and more to the Georgia International Horse Park on March 21 and March 22 … Melissa Harshman’s A Delicate Balance explores grief, loss, mindfulness and resilience through printmaking and papermaking. Harshman pulls inspiration from the recent Walk for Peace led by Buddhist monks from Texas to Washington, D.C., for a vibrant and colorful exhibition. The show opens at Eyedrum on March 22 and will run through a closing reception and artist talk on April 19 … Enigmatic guitarist Marc Ribot has released six solo albums, but his distinctive sound is probably best known through his work with Tom Waits in the ’80s. Waits’ brilliant 1985 album Rain Dogs is practically a showcase for his barbed-wire twang. He’s also all over a more recent classic, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’ Raising Sand. He’ll play the Wild Heaven Garden Club on March 20.