Woodruff Arts Center unveils new family-friendly expansion

The Woodruff Arts Center celebrated the grand opening of the Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families and PNC PlaySpace, a new family-friendly expansion to Midtown’s arts hub, on Jan. 28.

Designed with young audiences in mind, the space elevates accessibility, imagination, and inclusion. The immersive and interactive forest-themed PNC PlaySpace will be open six days a week and is completely free for families to visit.

The Goizueta Stage for Youth & Families features flexible, retractable seating that allows the venue to transform from artistic productions to galas, community gatherings, corporate events, and more. The Bernie & Billi Marcus Sensory Room encircles the upper level, providing a welcoming environment for patrons with neurodivergence.

Leaders who attended the opening celebration included Jennifer Barlament, the Executive Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Christopher Moses, the Jennings Hertz Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre; Samantha Jones, the Regional President for PNC Bank Georgia; and Julianna Cagle, the President of the Goizueta Foundation.

The event included performances from Mausiki Scales and the Common Ground Collective and previews of the programming patrons will find on the Goizueta Stage, including Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Music for the Very Young: Carnival of Animals and Alliance Theatre’s Into the Burrow: A Peter Rabbit Tale.

“I know in the depths of my soul that this is a sacred space, because it is an extraordinary space where extraordinary things will happen, and we know that to be true, we’ve done the multi-year research study that empirically proves what we already intuitively knew: that arts-based field trips can profoundly and lastingly influence young people’s development for the better,” Moses said. “That’s no longer up to debate, and that’s why I’m so confident to say this is a sacred space, because in this space, young people will be able to transform their isolation into belonging. They will be able to transform their anxiety into confidence… their despair into hope.”

A multi-year research study led by the Woodruff Arts Center and the University of Arkansas shows that early engagement in the arts improves educational outcomes: Children immersed in the arts are twice as likely to graduate college, four times as likely to participate in math and science fairs, three times as likely to earn attendance awards, and four times as likely to achieve academic recognition. They also report feeling more connected to school and more optimistic about their futures.

In its first 18 months, the Goizueta Stage will host 386 performances and welcome 88,000 in-person attendees. The impact of the performance space will extend beyond Atlanta; the Alliance Theatre is partnering with the Cox Campus at the Atlanta Speech School to provide the theatre’s youth and family shows and other educational content online for free to classes in over 150 countries. The theatre will also provide subsidies for schools who cannot afford buses for field trips to the venue.

The Alliance’s programming is already underway at the Goizueta Stage; Into the Burrow runs now through June 27. Forthcoming shows include Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed from Feb. 21 to June 30 and The Great Ant Sleepover from May 16 to July 5. Tickets are $10 for children and $20 for adults.

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will kick off its new Chamber Music Series at the Goizueta Stage on Jan. 30 with music by Mozart, Rossini, Bartók and Janáče. The series continues on March 38 with The Wild Harpsichord and April 26 with AMERICA @ 250 Chamber Music. The Music for the Very Young series starts Jan. 31 through Feb. 1 with Carnival of the Animals and continues on April 11-19 with The Tin Man’s Oz.

Learn more about the Goizueta Stage for Youth and Families here.

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