Atlanta, the capital of the New South, is a vibrant, exciting city where tree-lined neighborhoods are just minutes away from high-rise condos and skyscrapers housing Fortune 500 companies. Atlanta is more than its internationally known, fictional portrait in Gone With the Wind. The city's reality includes being the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr., part of its long tradition of tolerance and diversity. Atlanta, like The Art Institute, welcomes people from across the U.S. and around the world, especially since the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. 

Atlanta had its beginnings in the 1830s, when the railroads cut through north Georgia and a few streets were cleared along the Indian trails that crisscrossed the hilly region beside the Chattahoochee River. Atlanta has been on the move ever since. Built by pioneering entrepreneurs of transportation and business, Atlanta has always been a city of vision. After General Sherman's army burned and pillaged the city during the Civil War, Atlantans took the mythical phoenix as their symbol and rose from the ashes to build what renowned nineteenth-century Atlanta journalist Henry Grady called "a brave and beautiful city." 

Atlanta's thriving business environment includes high-tech companies, such as Earthlink, as well as corporate giants like The Coca-Cola Company, CNN-Time Warner, Delta Air Lines, AT&T, and Georgia Pacific. As a leading provider of applied arts education, the college contributes to the growth of Atlanta's high-technology business initiatives and its burgeoning arts community. City of commerce, city of dreams, Atlanta is most of all a city on the move. Students at The Art Institute of Atlanta become a part of this dynamic city while working to make their own dreams a reality.