Boyle McCauley News

Since 1979 • April-May 2024 • Circulation 5000

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Get Ready to GLOW

Boyle Street Lantern Parade on March 19.

Have you ever been to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival? If so, you’ll know one of the highlights every year is the lantern parade. On Saturday, March 19, Quarters Arts is bringing a lantern parade to Boyle Street. Called GLOW, the project brings together builders, designers, artists, as well as others without any experience. Together, they are creating giant puppet lanterns that will be paraded through the community.

This event, says Quarters Arts Artistic Director Lori Gawryluik, is “not a standing around parade. Everyone walks together and lights up Boyle Street.” Lori and the rest of the Quarters Arts team work hard to create inclusive activities that are rooted in the geographical area. Recent examples include York Moments, a multi-tiered history project centered on the York Hotel, and Quarters Arts Nights, music and art celebrations at Boyle Street Plaza. Lori sees GLOW as a “really good example of programming we are trying to support. The hope is to create traditions fuelled by community participation and a sense of place that are unique, beautiful, and magical.”

Many people are already busy working on this new tradition. Since early February, participants have met at Boyle Street Plaza (9538 103A Avenue) on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. to work on lanterns. They will continue to do so right up until the parade on the 19th. Everyone is welcome to help, and no experience is required.

If a different workshop time is better, please contact Quarters Arts (quartersartscall@gmail.com). You will be connected with one of GLOW’s numerous partners, including the Drawing Room Artists Collective, Bissell Centre, E4C, Mother Teresa Elementary School, and the Boyle Street Community League.

Alternatively, the lead artists can offer another drop-in time to help you and your group work on a lantern. Lynette Maurice, who started the Edmonton Folk Music Festival Lantern Parade, heads the project with Cindi Zuby, who has over 20 years experience coordinating festival, parade, and theatre events.

If you are unable to volunteer your time, GLOW also needs other forms of support in order to happen now and in future years. Money can be donated through GLOW’s Make Something Edmonton page, and in-kind material is also a great help.

Ultimately, as Lori relates, this project is about people “spending time together.” Writer and activist Johnny Lee, who is also a board member of Quarters Arts and area resident, expands on this idea:

“The Quarters Arts Lantern Parade is not about one group or organization’s build or event showcasing their hard work and talents. It’s about a wide range of community members, from those who live in relative comfort to the impoverished. Coming together on a drop-in basis to help with the build, while enjoying each others company. And then showcasing not only the beauty of art, spectacle and light. But also a sense of solidarity and belonging in a city of great diversity in culture, as well as stature.”

GLOW takes place on March 19 at 8 p.m., with Boyle Street Plaza as the starting location.

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