My First Visit to the High Museum

My first visit to the High Museum was also my first ride on MARTA. Both experiences were quite unique to say the least. Before taking the Tech Trolley to the MARTA station Catherine, my roommate, and I had researched the route we needed to take to get to the High Museum. Google Maps made the whole process seem simple enough. All we had to do was get on MARTA and go to the Arts Center stop, right? Well when we got there we realized it wasn’t that simple.

At the station, we saw that there were so many different routes that we could take, and none of the maps were making any sense. So we just picked up the assistance phone and asked, “What is the fastest route to the Arts Center?” The woman on the other end of the phone was very helpful and simplified our situation by telling us all we had to do was get on the northbound train and go up one stop to the Arts Center. But while getting the ticket to get on the MARTA train I was a nickel short for my ticket -- just one nickel short and all I hard were pennies and a twenty dollar bill. Of course the MARTA machines don’t take pennies. Luckily my roommate, Catherine, found a dollar somewhere in the depths of her purse. (And to this moment I owe her a dollar.)  

The train ride was fairly uneventful compared to the rest of our day at the High. We did notice, however, that you do not have much time for dilly-dallying when getting on or off a train.

The Arts Center stop had two exits, and I picked the wrong one to exit through. Catherine wanted to go out of the other exit, and that exit would have been much quicker. But my way worked, and we got to the High Museum eventually. We just had to walk around the MARTA station and up a giant hill.

Once in the High Museum, I learned that I couldn’t correctly navigate revolving doors. Only one person is supposed to go in each section, not two.  The exhibit itself was interesting. I liked the large range of art the stretched from very practical to highly non-functional. Although I greatly wished that they had let you sit in the chairs. I really wanted to know if they were comfortable or not. My favorite chair on exhibit, and there was a very large selection, was probably the metal chair that was made out of sheets of metal. Of all the chairs on display, maybe only half could have actually functioned in a normal household. I don’t understand why a person would make a chair that couldn’t function as a normal chair. What is the purpose?

There were many interesting items in the exhibit. I especially liked the lamp fixtures. There was one shaped like a cloud that moved, and another that would inflate and deflate with heat as the light was turned on or off. The lamps were probably my most liked items out of the whole exhibit.

Other items that I found puzzling were the Dyson vacuum cleaner, a toaster, a can of motor oil, and some grill tools. I don’t understand why these everyday items are in an art exhibit. The vacuum cleaner looks cool, but I’m pretty sure it was designed to clean, not be put on display. The can of motor oil was most baffling to me so I even took a picture to prove that it wasn’t anything special. But maybe to someone somewhere it is special, but to an auto mechanic it is just annoying because it doesn’t fit with all of the other cans of motor oil. The can is more inefficient than anything else. There were water bottle on display with the motor oil and I have actually had that water before. It’s a cool bottle, but not environmentally friendly because it does efficiently hold water.

Many things that I saw on exhibit at the High puzzled my mind. By far the gift shop prices may have been most challenging. A $700 mini replica of a chair would never be worth it. Many of the items that were on display could be found in the gift show for very outrageous prices. But there were no vacuum cleaners or toasters, sadly.

I’m looking forward to lots of visits to the high, now that I know where it is and how to get there. I will make sure I always have my $4.50 with me or I may even invest in a Breeze Card.