Last Saturday, Munroe Center for the Arts welcomed over 400 people to the second annual Munroe Arts Illumination Night in Depot Square, which this year also kicked off the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. week of activities. And, despite the late rain, we ended the evening together with a group of hearty Lexingtonians to light up the VO250 arch in celebration of the town’s volunteer hours.
Illumination Night would not have been such a success without support from residents, civic organizations, and town departments.
Thank you to the volunteers who helped us create lanterns, Jane Paulson, Kelly Clough, Alice DelDonno, and Jin Chyung; to folks who helped to set up/clean up/staff the event: Ana andMalcolm Burwell, Pam and Frank Smith, Susan Knauer, Peter Ray, Sue Offsey, Myra Luharuka, Star Lancaster, John Cini, and Chia Shen; and to Bryan Steele, Subhash Roy, and Jake Klinzing, who captured the night in photos and video, as well as Ian Burwell our drone photographer.
Thank you to our artists: Shehab Hossain, who created LED spirograph portraits non-stop with help from Anik Kukjian, Tova Speter with Brighter Ignited interactive light peg sculpture, and the Lexington Youth STEAM Team Initiative who created amazing projections onto the Depot building – Angelina Ding, Kalina Liu, Andrew Pan, Stephen Yang,Trenton Fan, Jiawei Liu, and their mentors – Stella Shen, Jeannie Lu, and Dr. Wei Ding, who provided technical guidance, animation support, and coordination help; and to Mark Manasas from Lexington Lyceum Advocates who provided the sound and technical support.
A shout out to the Town Manager’s Office, Economic Development Office, DPW, and Police Department! We feel blessed to have this kind of support for community fun. Thank you to the Inn at Hastings Park for hot chocolate, and Troop 313 for the campfire that warmed us all.
We are grateful to the Lexington Council for the Arts for a LCC grant, as well as a MCC Cultural Districts grant, and our community partners Mona Roy and Sara Bothwell Allen from Lex250/VO250, and Sara Sheikh and Christina Lin from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. week of activities.
You all make Lexington a great place to call home. And any time someone wants to borrow the light-up hula hoops, just let me know!
With kindest regards,
Cristina Burwell
Executive Director, Munroe Center for the Arts