If you like some combination of adventure, sports, photography and outdoor happenings, the Red Bull Illume needs to be on your radar.
This free exhibition from what is billed as the world’s largest international photography competition dedicated to action and adventure sports opens in Piedmont Park on March 20 for a 10-day run.
In keeping with the great outdoors setting of most of the top 50 photos on view — which depict snowboarding and surfboarding, mountain climbing and BMX riding, skydiving and much more — the exhibit will be displayed in the park, just inside its entrance at 10th Street and Charles Allen Drive. The photos will be shown after dusk in 25 large, illuminated light boxes (showing pictures on both sides).
The 50 images were selected from more than 28,000 submissions by 6,417 photographers from 124 countries.
The Red Bull Illume will kick off at 8 p.m. March 20 with an event featuring some 15 Red Bull athletes showing their skills, the Red Bull Air Force skydiving into the park, meet and greets with photographers and more. Cocktails will be available for guests ages 21 and up.
For more on the free exhibit through March 30, visit www.redbullillume.com or the Red Bull Illume: Atlanta Facebook page.
VISUAL ART
‘Bartrams’ Footsteps’ explores natural history
Ushering in spring, the Atlanta History Center and the Cherokee Garden Library are mounting the exhibition “Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps: Contemporary Botanical Artists Explore the Bartrams’ Legacy.”
Opening March 19 in McElreath Hall, this free exhibit presents botanical artwork depicting plants discovered and introduced by John and William Bartram, colonial explorers of the American Southeast.
A companion exhibit featuring pieces from the Cherokee Garden Library and Atlanta History Center collections will include rare books and historic Southeastern maps, objects an 18th century explorer carried on his travels and American Indian artifacts.
The exhibition also features a native plant garden, close by in the Mary Howard Gilbert Memorial Quarry Garden, where visitors can view plants depicted in the artwork in their natural habitat. Notably, that includes the state champion Franklin tree, a discovery made by the Bartrams’ in the 1760s and now believed to be extinct in the wild.
“Following in the Bartrams’ Footsteps” will open with a 7 p.m. March 19 lecture by Joel Fry, curator of Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. Fry will present a survey of illustrations by William Bartram, whose journal “Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida” remains an invaluable record of the region’s 18th-century natural history. Lecture reservations are $25.
The exhibit was organized by the American Society of Botanical Artists at the New York Botanical Garden in collaboration with Bartram’s Garden. (History center admission does not apply to the exhibits and quarry garden.)
Through June 17. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays. 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. 404-814-4000, www.atlantahistorycenter.com/bartram.
EVENT
Art experiences: going once, going twice …
Burnaway, the Atlanta nonprofit dedicated to providing a dialogue about the arts in Atlanta and the Southeast, will host its third annual Art Crush Auction at Paris on Ponce on March 22.
The 7-10 p.m. fundraiser, which supports Burnaway’s programs and writers’ fees for its website, puts a variety of “experiences” with artists as well as artwork on the block.
Those experiences include a ceramics workshop with Jiha Moon, an Atlanta art tour with High Museum of Art Modern and Contemporary Curator Michael Rooks and a river clean-up expedition with Pam Longobardi, who won the 2013 Hudgens Prize for work that comments on (and frequently draws materials from) mankind’s plastic ocean pollution.
Auction begins at 8 p.m. (advance bidding on artwork at www.paddle8.com/auctions/burnaway). Tickets (includes food, open bar): $40 advance, $50 door. 716 Ponce de Leon Place N.E., Atlanta. www.artcrushauction.com.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
A chorus of cheer for Bach’s birthday
The Georgia Boy Choir and Atlanta Baroque Orchestra will team up in a most authentic fashion to celebrate the 329th birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach with two “Bach Birthday Bash” concerts.
While Bach’s birthday is March 21, the concerts of Bach choral and orchestral works will be at 7:30 p.m. March 22 at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church (3180 Peachtree Road N.E., Atlanta) and 4 p.m. March 23 at Roswell Presbyterian Church (755 Mimosa Blvd., Roswell).
Georgia Boy Choir Artistic Director and Conductor David R. White noted that Bach wrote most of his choral music to be performed by his choir of men and boys at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany, yet even some of the top early-music ensembles do not perform with choirs.
“If the performance is going to be truly ‘historically informed’ and use original instruments, then the use of boys’ voices is essential,” White said. “They are the ‘original instrument’ which Bach used.”
A talk will be presented 45 minutes before each concert. Tickets ($20 advance, $25 day of show, with discounts for seniors, students): www.atlantabaroque.org or www.georgiaboychoir.org.
Tuning up for Madison Chamber fest
A heads-up for music lovers: The 12th annual Madison Chamber Music Festival will open on April 2, featuring the Assad Family from Brazil in a 7:30 p.m. concert of folk, jazz and Latin music.
Continuing with weekend performances through June 29, the festival will include appearances by the String Divas and the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet. The fest is organized by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Christopher Rex.
434 S. Main St., Madison. www.mmcc-arts.org.
