Arts Agenda: Outdoor art

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.

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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 its website for a list of all the artists and works you’ll find there.

Fernbank Museum

Wander through a kaleidoscope of wonder with Flight of Butterflies. This outdoor exhibit combines nature, art and storytelling through a showcase of 25 striking butterfly sculptures that line the paths of WildWoods. See it through June 7.

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. The city recently surpassed 2,000 murals. See how we got there.

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

Celebrate the Garden’s 50th anniversary with an encore exhibition of artist ’s monumental sculptures that debuted at the Garden 20 years ago this spring. The French sculptor, who died in 2002, was known as one of the first female sculptors of massive works, particularly her “Nanas” — lighthearted, whimsical and colorful large-scale sculptures of women, animals and monsters. This year’s exhibition continues through September 6 and will feature 41 works in what’s believed to be the largest showing of the artist’s art ever presented in North America. 

Chatttahoochee Nature Center

How about some of nature’s own art? The Chattahoochee Nature Center’s most popular annual exhibit, the Butterfly Encounter, is back for its 13th 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 art on the grounds of the Preserve. It has 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.

Compassion Corridor

A new multisite art installation is taking shape along the Stone Mountain Trail. Lungs of Mother Earth, a tall steel and wood sculpture, has been installed in a grassy meadow in Scottdale near Davis Manufacturing. This piece was created by local artist Shannon Willow, who previously installed its companion piece, Heart of Mother Earth, further north along the Trail in Clarkston in 2024. Both sculptures are part of the Compassion Corridor, an emerging outdoor green space that is anchored by art and pollinator gardens developed by Willow and Compassionate Atlanta, a grassroots community-building nonprofit centered on compassionate action. Read more about it here.