You know how there are all these interesting-sounding terms for groups of animals? Like “pride of lions” or “murder of crows.” The idea for an upcoming nighttime art event came from one of these.
“When I heard that a group of owls is called a ‘parliament,’ it really stayed in my mind,” says Chantelle Rytter, who really has the best job title, ever: community parade artist.
Rytter is the guiding light (please forgive the pun) behind the BeltLine Lantern Parade. She also recently assembled 755 people dressed as gnomes to march in the Inman Park Festival Parade in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record.
“I really want to create a platform for community play,” she says. “It meets a need to be creative together. I think that it reaffirms our collective agency to create wondrous events for ourselves and our community.”
So naturally, armed with the information that a group of owls is called a “parliament,” she set about creating owl lanterns and puppets for a parade.
“I love ensembles,” Rytter explains. “Like, one thing is fun but multiples have sort of a magic to them. Or like the gnomes: one gnome is funny, 755 gnomes is really really funny. A group of owls, I thought would be a fun and elegant thing to build.”
Standing in Rytter’s studio overlooking 15th Street in the Promenade tower in Midtown, you can’t help feeling that you’re being watched. Owl lanterns, with their big yellow eyes, peer from every corner. The largest are puppets mounted on backpack harnesses sporting wingspans of over five feet. They’ve also created a set of what Rytter calls “spinny head dresses;” big owl masks that spin all the way around.
“We like the anthropomorphic idea of an owl head on a human body,” she says, putting one on herself. She gives it a spin and it swivels around and around.
Rytter has been organizing lantern parades on the BeltLine for nine years—the 2017 event attracted over 70,000 people to Old Fourth Ward.
“A Parliament of Owls” will be the first lantern parade in Midtown and it’s thanks in part to the Midtown Alliance, who are sponsoring the event, and Cousins Properties, which owns the Promenade building. Cousins has been operating an artist-in-residence program at Promenade since 2013, which includes the studio space which Chantelle Rytter is currently stuffing full of owls.
“So Cousins gifts the space to an artist for two years,” Rytter explains, “and the artist has to give an artist to Cousins. So the last artist was Ryan Coleman, so he’s a painter, so he would gift a painting. And I applied for this and when I interviewed I wanted to get it straight up front, right, like what my present would be. And you know what I do, I’m a community parade artist, so your gift would be a parade that starts right here.”
Rytter has the studio through January, and she says it’s been a “game-changer.”
“This should be the practice, right? Where developers grant an art studio to artists.” Rytter gestures around the room, with its tall windows letting natural light spill inside. “Imagine the Atlanta where every developer has a little space where, tucked away, is an artist producing work in the neighborhood. I think it’s a really good model.”
Of course, Rytter’s work isn’t the kind that’s meant to stay “tucked away.” In addition to the owls her and her Krewe have been building, she has also been hosting lantern-making workshops, as well as making owl lantern-making kits available just around the corner at the Museum of Design Atlanta. To ensure a low barrier to entry, she’s also made owl masks available for free in PDF form at midtown lantern parade dot com. And Rytter has done all this because she’s pretty serious about having fun, or what she calls “civic play.” She says that “civic play connects people to people, and people to place.”
“If we have a really great time together in a shared space, it’s always gonna remind you,” she says. “Like, the BeltLine reminds you of Lantern Parade, and all of the fun that you have there. And I think walking around the sidewalks of Midtown with a mess of owls it gonna be pretty memorable!”
And it seems appropriate that Rytter will be making those memories with these symbols of night and wisdom illuminating the way.
The “Parliament of Owls” Lantern Parade in Midtown takes place Friday. Festivities start at the Promenade Building at Peachtree Street and 15th Street at 8:30 p.m.
