An arts and entertainment hub is underway on Marietta St. with the vision of becoming a space for students to explore the intersection of arts and technology.
The “Creative Quarter” plans to occupy eight acres of space in West Midtown. Previously, the land was the former headquarters of a building products manufacturer, Randal Brothers. Tech bought this land in 2018 for $36 million to transform the space into a functional innovation district.
The Creative Quarter will be a cross between Tech Square and the Invention Studio. It aims to be a place where any student can come to make art — either for a class, a research project, a student organization or just for fun. Students will have the opportunity to learn how to use the latest technologies to make innovative content. It will also be a place for students to network with other creative industry leaders and startups, as well as form new collaborations with peers and mentors.
“Our students at Georgia Tech are hungry for experiences in the arts,” Jason Freeman, Interim Associate Vice Provost for the Arts, told Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “No matter what their major is, the arts are important to a huge percentage of our students. Many of them are really interested in pursuing careers at this intersection of creativity and technology.”
With the proximity to campus and the broader Atlanta community, the location makes the Creative Quarter a natural center for innovation, collaboration and cultural exchange. The aim is to replicate a similar trajectory of success achieved by earlier projects such as Tech Square and Science Square.
These institute extensions have become startup incubators, headquarters for leading corporations and a hub for innovation labs. Institute President Ángel Cabrera and Freeman hope to do the same for the Creative Quarter by attracting art industry players, creating film sets, building sound studios and becoming a makerspace for students to experiment with art.
“The Creative Quarter will be a place where students can learn how to use the latest technologies in creative practice, but also a place where they can innovate and help create the next generation of technologies that will continue to change how we create and experience art,” Freeman stated in an interview with the Technique.
Although no timeline for development has been set, Freeman also told AJC that the Creative Quarter will hold infrastructure including academic space, offices, retail and housing. The space will aim to be active all year long, not only during the school year.
“Just like our other innovation districts — Tech Square and Science Square — the Creative Quarter is a long-term project,” Freeman explained. “With that in mind, we know that the funding models will evolve over time, and the site will be developed in phases. There will be a mix of funding sources, such as private capital (for more commercially-oriented spaces) and philanthropy (for spaces more directly focused on serving GT students).”
The Creative Quarter will also aim to help Jackets aspiring to enter the entertainment industry by leveraging technological resources to expand artistic possibilities.
“Georgia Tech is an incredible place for the arts, with thousands of GT students taking arts-related classes, participating in arts-related student orgs, attending arts events, engaging with visiting artists and even sharing their artistic work beyond campus,” Freeman said. “We have world-class alumni who have found tremendous success across so many facets of creative industries — even winning Academy Awards. Yet as an institution, we sometimes lose sight of how fantastic and unique we are in the arts, just because so much of GT’s reputation has always been focused on technology. The Creative Quarter is our moment to make a big statement: to remind ourselves and the world that the arts and creativity are central to everything that we do, and to create a space where our campus, our community and our partners can come together to celebrate that and make some unbelievably cool stuff happen.”