Walk, run, ride your way through “Art” on the Atlanta Beltline

The South’s largest temporary public art project returns Saturday for its sixth and most selective go-round yet. Some 300 applications poured into Atlanta Beltline Inc. this year — a 50 percent increase over previous years — for visual and performing arts works to be featured onetime or throughout Art on the Atlanta Beltline’s run until Nov. 15. Ultimately, more than 100 works were chosen, ranging from murals and hanging sculptures to a Bollywood production and whimsical sculpted benches.

(Because the Westside Trail's future paved three-mile corridor between Adair Park and Washington Park is currently under construction, it takes place almost exclusively on the Eastside Trail this year).

Think of it as a living, breathing outdoor museum you can stroll, bike or jog through — without getting yelled at by your third-grade teacher. A full list of artists and their projects can be found at art.beltline.org. In the meantime, here are Seven Standouts About Art on the Atlanta Beltline 2015:

• Let there be light. The event's annual kickoff, the Atlanta Beltline Lantern Parade takes place Saturday, Sept. 12. Started as a performance piece by the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons in 2010, the popular parade now is a "continuing piece" that attracted some 20,000 marchers and spectators last year. Line-up starts at 7:15 p.m. at Krog and Irwin streets; step-off for the two-mile parade down the Eastside Trail to Piedmont Park is at 8:15 p.m. Want to make a lantern? Krewe captain Chantelle Rytter leads a workshop at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Ponce City Market (read our Personal Journey about Rytter here). See art.beltline.org for other workshops on Friday and Saturday
• Location, location, location: For the first time, art will extend all the way to the Eastside Trail's northernmost point at Montgomery Ferry Road on the interim hiking trail that runs behind Piedmont Park and Ansley Mall (Two pieces will hang under Montgomery Ferry). And it will go south as far as Edgewood Avenue, where two murals will hang along another interim hiking trail that runs between Irwin Street and DeKalb Avenue. "That's the whole idea, you follow the art and suddenly you're in a new neighborhood," said Nicole Knox, communications coordinator for Atlanta Beltline, Inc.    
• Sit a spell: Nature's Way," Harry Zmijewski's system of eye-catching "linked" benches, encourages slowing down at one of the trail's most heavily trafficked points, just south of the Ponce de Leon overpass. "People do their best thinking or are more willing to meet strangers" while sitting, said Zmijewski, whose benches will gaze across that stretch of paved trail at "COLORism," a series of photos by Joshua Rashaad McFadden. Closer to Freedom Parkway, "Swarm of Butterflies" is a small house with a bench inside where people can sit and move the metal butterflies that "fly" overhead.
•   Look up, look down: Two pieces — including the colorful Hydra, constructed by three Georgia Tech students — will hang underneath Freedom Parkway and above "Josie Comes Home," a massive sculpted head of "found" and dilapidated objects by William Massey. Meanwhile, keep your eyes aimed at the ground while approaching Irwin Street; that's where Tiny Doors ATL has, well, a tiny door inset in the curb alongside The Icebox. It's one of three they've installed as part of Art on the Beltline (the others are on the interim hiking trail near Reynoldstown), says Tiny Doors ATL director Karen Anderson (read our earlier story about Tiny Doors ATL here). Tiny lanterns will deck the doors during the parade and will pop up along the Beltline this week for others to find and keep.
•   It takes a village: Tiny Doors ATL actually collaborated on the Irwin installation with #weloveatl, which aims to connect Atlanta as a community through photos. The tiny door actually "opens" onto a tiny photo gallery. Other artists have collaborated on pieces this year, most notably the dramatic painting of a young woman that sprawls across the side of Two Urban Licks (aka the Turner Building). Addison Karl and Jarus, muralists from Berlin and Canada respectively, decided to work together on the as-yet untitled work.
•   Skatepark of the star(s): Historic Fourth Ward Skatepark now boasts something even flashier to go with its usual scene of boarders kickflippin' and catching air. "A 24/7 Timestar Lives" is a 24-foot-high sculpted star rising over the trailside edge of the park. Sculptor Charlie Smith created the star for the incredibly hip Burning Man festival in 2012. It had never been shown anywhere else, and early indications are that its hipster cred has hardly been diminished by its new setting against a backdrop of skateboarders and the Atlanta skyline. Photos are already popping up on social media. And, if casual observation is any indication, taking a selfie with it (a starfie?) is starting to rival doing it in front of those giant CNN letters downtown.
•   Westside story: Art on the Beltline does make one stop on the west side on Sept. 20, offering an evening of free performances in Gordon White Park that culminates with what Flight of Swallows describes as "temporarily suspend(ing) gravity on the Atlanta BeltLine by blurring the line between dance and sculpture." Other free performances are in Reynoldstown on Sept. 19, where the lineup includes Dad's Garage and musician Saira Raza leading a dance piece called "Psychedelic Bollywood;" and all day on Oct. 11 in Historic Fourth Ward Park, where the slate ranges from modern dance to handbell choir. See art.beltline.org for a complete schedule and listings.