Holiday Lights at Crosstown Concourse
Crosstown Concourse, 1350 Concourse
Friday-Saturday, December 11-12, 5:30-8:30 p.m. Continues through December 26
Photo by Jamie Harmon courtesy of Crosstown Concourse
Holiday Lights at Crosstown Concourse
If you’ve driven down Cleveland over the past couple of days, you may have noticed the new holiday lights at Crosstown Concourse. Since the annual Delight at Concourse lighting party couldn’t be hosted this year, Crosstown Concourse added more merriment with more lighting.
The 100-foot-tall holiday tree-shaped lighting installation and four-foot-wide disco ball can still be enjoyed in the Central Atrium, but now there is a magical forest of multi-hued, twinkling holiday trees on the plaza, an art installation made of rainbow lights through the parking area, moving projections on the building every weekend, and more. You can also enjoy some live music with musical pop-ups almost every day in December. The stores are also open for holiday shopping or to pick up takeout.
“This year’s Delight at Concourse celebration may be different, but we hope it shines brighter than ever.” — Todd Richardson, president of the Crosstown Redevelopment Cooperative
Memphis-based artist and educator Lake Newton has transformed the cylindrical white lighting that hangs along Concourse Avenue into an art installation, titled Nightlife, that mimics the rainbow of colors observed on night drives through Memphis streets.
Pop-up dining areas have been added in the hallway between the West and Central Atria, allowing guests to enjoy a takeout meal from any of Crosstown Concourse’s restaurants in a warm and well-ventilated space. Photographer Jamie Harmon’s images from past Delight celebrations are interspersed with his other holiday-themed photographs along the hallway.
Throughout the month, local musicians, such as Memphis Symphony Orchestra violinist Barrie Cooper, singer-songwriter Jeremy Stanfill, and reggae artist Yubu, among others, will be performing pop-up concerts in spaces throughout the building.
Toy Truck benefiting Porter-Leath
WMC-TV, 1960 Union
Friday, December 11, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday, December 12, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Kelly & Associates Advertising, Inc.
Toy Truck benefiting Porter-Leath, WMC Action News 5
Volunteers load the toy truck with donated gifts.
Everyone likes to see a happy child. Making over 6,000 children happy — that’s pure joy. Come be a part of Porter-Leath’s Toy Truck gift drive to put a new toy under the tree for more than 6,200 children served by Porter-Leath’s preschool program.
This year is going to be especially difficult to meet gift goals due to the cancellation of Stumbling Santa, an annual event where hundreds of people dressed as Santa bring an unwrapped gift to celebrate the season. The need is greater this year too. The pandemic has caused many families who were already experiencing the effects of poverty to eliminate all discretionary funds, especially funds that would normally be used for a holiday gift. You can drop off new, unwrapped toys as well as cash, check, or credit card donations. Next Saturday, the truck moves to IKEA, 7900 IKEA Way, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The best toys to bring are dolls, puzzles, balls, blocks, and other toys that promote early childhood learning.
Don’t miss your opportunity to brighten a child’s holiday while helping to build a foundation for learning.
Artist reception for “Woebetide”
David Lusk Gallery, 97 Tillman
Saturday, December 12, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Image courtesy of David Lusk Gallery
Artist reception for "Woebetide," David Lusk Gallery
Orb Weaver by Maysey Craddock
“As an artist working in this era of terrifying climactic disruption, I create to offer a kind of song about these spaces, an elegy for natural systems that are daily being consumed by development, extraction, and encroachment. These are places of persistence, fecundity, and beauty, providing rare and precious habitat in a landscape that is being rapidly consumed and altered for human use. My paintings offer a visual back and forth, echoing wild spaces as ever-shifting repositories for impermanence, disintegration, and the inevitability of change.” — Maysey Craddock
Artist Maysey Craddock has been busy creating a body of work in this year of uncertainty that focuses on the inevitability of change. Working from imagery based on photographic explorations, abstracted drawings are rendered and then transferred onto a substrate of sewn-together fragments of discarded paper bags. Layers of gouache are laid over the terrain of the paper, conveying atmosphere and recollection. This process of making and unmaking multiplies in materiality and image, mirroring the natural and geological processes that inform these works of art.
The works in “Woebetide” reflect the tenacity and beauty of the diminishing wilderness of southern wetlands.
For other exhibitions around town, both virtual and in-person, visit our ongoing art calendar listings. There is a holiday show at L. Ross Gallery and a newly opened exhibition at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, “Power and Absence: Women in Europe,” just to name a few.
Arts Week: The Mighty Lights
Hernando de Soto Bridge; visit the ArtsMemphis Facebook page for Arts Week happenings
Sunday, December 13
Photo courtesy of Doug Carpenter + Associates
Arts Week: The Mighty Lights
An officially-proclaimed week by both the City of Memphis and Shelby County is celebrating the fact that Memphis has a dynamic, diverse collection of artists and arts organizations.
All week, on social media and marquees across Memphis neighborhoods, the spotlight has been focused on the significance of art to the city’s cultural vitality. This weekend brings to a close the inaugural week-long celebration of our arts community with The Mighty Lights glowing in ArtsMemphis colors on Sunday after sundown. Mo’s Bows also has a limited-edition Arts Week mask and is donating a portion of proceeds to ArtsMemphis to support 2021 grant-making.
ArtsMemphis President and CEO Elizabeth Rouse explains the significance in 2020: “We are excited to launch Arts Week as a shared opportunity for the community to thank our artists and for our artists to showcase what they have accomplished this year despite the roadblocks of this pandemic.”
Visit ArtsMemphis Facebook and Instagram channels for testimonials, tributes, and performances that shine a light on area arts nonprofits that have sustained a projected $20 million income loss from March through December 2020.
Though devastating, arts organizations and artists continue to be resilient, creative, and collaborative. According to Rouse, we should honor them this week with our continued support.
Time Warp Drive-In: Strange Christmas 7
Malco Summer 4 Drive-In, 5310 Summer
Saturday, December 12, 7 p.m.
Facebook/Time Warp Drive-In
Time Warp Drive-In: Strange Christmas 7, Malco Summer 4 Drive-In
This one is for those readers who loathe the holidays — you know who you are. And let’s be honest, you are out there seething about all the jolly good fun and cheer that is coming at you from all sides. Bah-Humbug.
During this “Strange Christmas” duet of disturbed yuletide horrors featuring the original 1974 Black Christmas and the 1984 film Silent Night, Deadly Night, you can explore the more bizarre, demented side of holiday cinema.
Are you happy now?
For the rest of you, the usual feel-good holiday films can be found in our Holiday calendar’s film section.
That’s a wrap.
For a full list of what’s happening this weekend in and around Memphis, check out our calendar of events. Also, be sure to tag your favorite Instagram photos of Memphis while you are out and about with the #memphismagazine hashtag. I hope you have a great weekend.
