Gatis team are delighted to announce that this years Lantern Parade is being supported and funded by Arts Council England through their National Lottery Project Grants scheme. The grant will allow the creative team at Gatis to collaborate with new partners, deliver new workshops and expand both the physical and creative reach of the parade. The parade itself is now into its fourth year and takes place in the latter part of the year when the nights are dark and gloomy, and takes participants on a journey through the streets of Whitmore Reans. It includes a story, singing and games along the way with participants waving brightly coloured lanterns.

The overall aim of the parade is to bring people together to celebrate our area and its diverse cultures. Each year there is a specific theme that links to the local neighbourhood and the team run a range of workshops, activities and competitions that link into the central theme. We always end the parade back in the grounds of Gatis Community Space where people can gather around a camp fire and listen to poems and stories or even sing a few songs. Adam Billington lead artist and creative director of Gatis Community Space said “We’ve worked really hard over the last three years to make this event a yearly celebration. Last year we successfully crowd funded the event and we are delighted that arts council have funded us this year. This really helps recognise local artists work in creating the lanterns and stories around our diverse and fascinating community.

This year our theme is based around the history of the site and the area and we are very excited that this funding will allow us to experiment with new partners.” We are delighted to be working once more with John Edgar local storyteller and Adam Billington local artist who between them last year created a wonderful journey that involved the canal and the creatures that reside there. This year they will be joined by Suzie Lavender local glass artist who will be exploring ways of creating glass lanterns and Sian McFarlane who is currently running our Rayon Flowers project which is looking at the history of the site where Gatis now sits as a Rayon factory, the local flower parades and other interesting stories from Whitmore Reans past.

We are also delighted to welcome on board as partners Wolverhampton Arts and Culture department of Wolverhampton City Council and WCR 101.8 FM our very own local community radio. As well as support from Newhampton Arts Centre, Creative Black Country and St Andrews Church. This years parade is due to happen on 23rd November (to be confirmed) and you will find a range of workshops across the city please see our facebook events page for more information. Workshops will include: Mask Making, Lantern Making, Flower Garlands, Plant Photography, Storytelling, Lantern Repairing, Glass Fusing and Happa Zome. Events will take place at Gatis Community Space, Whitmore Reans Library, Central Library and the Art Gallery. For more information on our events please visit https://www.facebook.com/gatiscommunityspace/events/