This spring, the High will unveil this soaring, stunning installation by the internationally renowned architecture and design firm SO – IL and partners Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg, presented on The Woodruff Arts Center’s Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza. Murmuration continues a multiyear initiative to activate the High’s outdoor space with site-specific commissions that engage visitors of all ages in participatory art experiences.

The installation speaks directly to the architecture of the Piazza and more broadly to the city of Atlanta and its relationships with the natural world as viewed through the lens of bird migrations. Featuring a foliage-filled mesh canopy suspended over the Piazza by a steel framework, the installation will envelop guests, evoking tree canopies throughout the city and region. SO – IL was inspired by Atlanta’s reputation as the “city in a forest” and by the High’s proximity to the city’s largest greenspace, Piedmont Park, to guide the design of this installation.

Along with its many trees, the metro area is home to hundreds of bird species. The canopy’s perches will serve to draw birds to the site. Beneath the canopy, guests can use the space as a shaded gathering point and participate in their own “nesting and perching” by using benches and “pods” suspended from the upper structure. Murmuration will serve as a welcoming atmosphere for rest, socializing, and recreation, as well as a place for families to connect and create memories at the Museum.