Paula Jardine

Lanterns are vessels that contain light.

The very first Lantern Procession I participated in was with Ralph Lee Metawee River Company, in the river valley under the High Level Bridge in Edmonton, the landscape of my growing up. As part of the Universiade World University Games City Celebration, they created sea creature lanterns that swam through the poplar woods, led by the Divine Drummers of Ghana.

I am grateful to Maggie Howarth and Welfare State for teaching me how to make lanterns; to John Fox and Sue Gill for inspiring the lantern processions; and to Claude Schryer in his role as Inter Arts director at Banff, for giving me my first opportunity to explore the river of light.

Selected list of lantern projects

• Banff River of Light, workshops and procession,1989
• International Conference of Celebration Artists, Santa Fe New Mexico, 1990
• Illuminares Evening Lantern Procession: (inception) 1989 to 1995
• Initiated Lanterns as part of Vancouver Folk Music Festival Finale 1993 (?)
• Esquimalt Lantern Festival: initial workshops and installations throughout early years
• Golden BC annual “Snow King” event: creative mapping exercise and initial puppet making and Lantern making workshops, with Cathy Stubbington.
Installations and workshops with Luminara, produced by ICA, Victoria