Lighting the Way: How Atlanta’s Lantern Parade illuminated a public art revolution

When a minimal hundred glowing lanterns first floated down Atlanta s Beltline in the vision was simple create a space where anyone could light up the night with imagination Fifteen years later the Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade is considered a defining moment in the city s cultural calendar and a catalyst for Atlanta s population art renaissance On Saturday May the th anniversary celebration will take a new journey along the Beltline s Southwest Trail beginning at Adair Park I and ending at the Lee White Food Hall Thousands are expected to march carrying handmade lanterns of all shapes and sizes in a living luminous testament to what populace creativity can build A glowing welcome sign greets crowds at the Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade on the Westside Trail The parade s founder artist and Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons leader Chantelle Rytter never set out to create just an event She requested to create a movement It made the idea of masses art feel different Less precious less gatekept Rytter declared You didn t need permission to engage with citizens space in a creative way you just needed a lantern and the willingness to show up Visible LegacyThe Lantern Parade s impact is etched into Atlanta s landscape Sculptures murals and installations now line the BeltLine and surrounding neighborhoods multiple inspired by the parade s joyful ethos One striking example is a butterfly sculpture on the trail where colorful acrylic wings cast pools of light across the path echoing the illuminated spirit of the parade itself Even private spaces have embraced the tradition JTech in the Lee White district commissioned a mural featuring the parade s iconic phoenix puppet honoring its role in reimagining constituents art possibilities Meanwhile Rytter s giant puppets schools of floating fish luminous owls and fantastical beasts have become emblems of Atlanta s imaginative spirit Puppets summon everyone s inner child in a heartbeat Rytter explained People make eye contact with the puppet and talk to them like the puppeteer right in front of them doesn t exist In Rytter s view this kind of magic matters Interacting with fantastical creatures in ordinary spaces shifts our ideas about what is realizable here We tend to think of way of life as something outside of ourselves As it turns out we have the collective agency to create it Chantelle Rytter Photo by Isadora Pennington A Tradition RepairedThe Lantern Parade also carries a deeper historical resonance Unbeknownst to a multitude of Atlanta once had a tradition of lantern parades stretching back to with a series organized through populace parks from until Those parades ended with desegregation when integrated masses events were no longer accepted by city leaders What killed those parades was integration Rytter stated The thought then was We can t have everybody invited to a Lantern Parade Well now we do Building Region One Lantern at a TimeOver the past years Rytter and her Krewe have expanded the parade concept far beyond the Eastside Trail They launched more than a dozen spin-off parades across the region from Grant Park s IlluminATL to the Parliament of Owls Parade in Midtown to Hapeville s Butterfly Lantern Parade A new parade will debut this year in Memphis Each new parade shares the same DNA district participation handmade art and an open call to reimagine society space Assistance artists in your neighborhood and you ll have art in your neighborhood Rytter once explained a rallying cry embraced by Midtown Alliance after sponsoring the Parliament of Owls And the numbers are staggering More than half a million people have taken part in the parades In alone Rytter s parades drew more than participants and spectators When you can point to that a great number of people lighting up a trail or a small neighborhood street with homemade lanterns and pure contentment it becomes harder to argue that populace art doesn t matter Rytter disclosed Funders and city leaders could see it with their own eyes Art wasn t various luxury or afterthought It was the heartbeat of the neighborhood Lighting the WayThis year s th-anniversary parade promises even more visual spectacle Lantern workshops are being held across the city leading up to the parade On May the Southwest Trail will come alive with shimmering creatures hand-painted globes and glowing towers of imagination For Rytter the heart of the Lantern Parade has constantly been its radical inclusivity The soul of the city isn t in buildings or highways it s in the people in the light they bring and in the way we lift each other up she revealed On May Atlantans will once again lift up that light together The post Lighting the Way How Atlanta s Lantern Parade illuminated a society art revolution appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta