Shining a Light on New York Art

Morningside Lights is an annual outdoor procession put together by the Columbia Arts Initiative and Miller Theatre. In the early fall, dozens of vivid hand-crafted lanterns light up Morningside Park. The lanterns are built by volunteers from Columbia University and surrounding neighborhoods during a week of free public workshops. Students, families, and members of the community attend these workshops and the procession of the lanterns.

Each year’s Morningside Lights theme is conceived and directed by Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles of Processional Arts Workshop. Bringing a parade of illuminated lanterns to life, workshop participants are given the opportunity to learn the artistic techniques of Kahn and Michahelles. This year’s theme, In Retrospect: 100 Years of New York Art, was celebrating a century of New York artists, illustrators, artworks, and visual movements.

Kahn’s and Michahelles’ vision for Morningside Lights has been to empower the community and to convey complex ideas and experiences through illuminated forms. While the collective of lanterns are made from diverse individual perspectives, they also evoke resonance and poignancy in each passerby. As New York City stands in an uncertain time, In Retrospect reminds us that New York artists have been grappling with the same complexities for generations and have used these struggles to light their creative flame.

Before creating their pieces, the community lantern-makers were asked this year, “What New York artist or artwork has shaped your vision of the city?” and “What New York artwork has inspired you to evolve, learn, and move forward?”. Many reactions followed, from WPA murals to surreal abstractions, to video art—demonstrating there is no one focus from New York’s art history, as well as its present. 

Seeing a community come together in the darkness of Morningside Park to see these creations displays the power of how artistic expression can bring people together if the intention is right. Morningside Lights is a beautiful tradition that lets us take a step back and cherish the simplicity of beauty in a culturally rich city.