Processional Arts Workshop and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival to Host Second Annual Highland Lights

Free Community Workshop Registration is Now Open

GARRISON, NY (February 7, 2023) – Together with the Processional Arts Workshop, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) will host the second annual Highland Lights, a community celebration of art and nature, at their new home in Garrison this spring. Highland Lights invites neighbors to create collaborative works during free public lantern-making workshops and culminates in a spectacular outdoor procession of lights and lanterns on Earth Day, April 22.

Workshops will begin on Saturday, April 1 and run through Sunday, April 16. New this year, there will also be Wednesday and Friday workshops to accommodate increased demand for participation. The lantern-making workshops are geared towards adults and teens, but children ages eight and up are encouraged to join alongside an adult guardian. Participants will work collaboratively to create their lanterns, incorporating techniques like wire-forming, decoupage, and illumination using LED lighting.

“We’re proud to build on this new local tradition with a second event that aims to cultivate a shared experience of art, nature, and community,” said Kendra Ekelund, managing director of HVSF. “With the collaboration of our community partnerships and the fantastic leadership at the Processional Arts Workshop, we imagine Highland Lights becoming a Philipstown staple for years to come.”

The workshops will culminate with a spectacular outdoor procession of lights and community-built lanterns celebrating this year’s theme: Ad Astra, inspired by the constellations in the night sky and the enduring hope and imagination they ignite. The procession will take place on the grounds of HVSF’s new home, at 2015 Route 9 in Garrison on Earth Day, Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 7:00 PM, coupled with storytelling and refreshments.

"After the success of last year’s Highland Lights, we can’t wait to see the incredible art that this year’s workshops will foster," said Davis McCallum, artistic director at HVSF. “The procession is an inspiring tribute to the beauty of our Hudson Valley home, but also serves as a conduit for community connection.”

Highland Lights is presented in partnership with local not-for-profits Haldane Arts Alliance, Hudson Highlands Land Trust, and Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming.

To learn more and register for workshops and the procession, please visit hvshakespeare.org/highlandlights.

About Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

Founded in 1987, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) is a critically acclaimed (The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal), professional, non-profit theater company. The Festival has established a reputation for lucid, engaging, and highly inventive productions staged in rotating repertory under an iconic, open-air theater tent overlooking the Hudson River. In recent years, the Festival has also ventured beyond the tent, touring its work to other venues throughout the Hudson Valley as part of its HVSF On the Road series, transferring productions to other theaters, engaging its community through radically participatory art-making, and reaching over 50,000 students and educators annually through its year-round education programs. For more information, visit: hvshakespeare.org or follow HVSF on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.

About Processional Arts Workshop: Founded in 1998, Processional Arts Workshop (PAW) is a nonprofit arts ensemble that works with communities to design, build and perform site-specific parades, pageants and immersive theater works as a means for residents to come together, reflect upon and preserve the defining aspects of locality. For more information, visit: www.superiorconcept.org.