ALVEARE Luminoso is an illuminated, suspended hive-like structure which celebrates the importance of bees and pollinators within the environment. The work is created by Luba Zygarewicz, a Chilean-Ukranian artist based out of Mandeville and will be displayed at the inaugural Allumer Natchez. Photo by Bryce Ell Photography, courtesy of Allumer Natchez.
ENLIGHTENED
Allumer
A NEW FESTIVAL AND EXHIBITION FOSTER REBIRTH AND RENEWAL IN NATCHEZ By Swathi Reddy
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rt can be extraordinary, but it doesn’t have to be untouchable. This synchronous stance—bringing broad accessibility to an immersive array of art—is the bedrock behind Allumer Natchez, a light-based art exhibition and festival premiering November 19–21 in Natchez, Mississippi. There may be no more apt a medium for expression, vitality, and delight than light itself—which co-founder Stacy Conde noted is particularly suitable to highlighting the striking architecture so characteristic of Natchez. “The curatorial theme is based on rebirth and renewal, which is exactly
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what Natchez is going through,” said Conde, a Miami transplant who is owner and director of the fine arts gallery Conde Contemporary in Natchez. For Conde and fellow co-founder Lindsay Glatz, Allumer (pronounced Ah-loo-mehr) Natchez is a long-considered melding of their intertwined passions for art and community. “In ways, art provides an outlet for saying things that can be hard to communicate or create feelings that bring the community together,” said Glatz, a multi-disciplinary artist herself. The two organizers were introduced several years ago during the course of one of Conde’s projects, discovering in
N O V 2 1 // C O U N T R Y R O A D S M A G . C O M
each other kindred spirits. Apart from their shared dedication to championing creatives and the communities they serve, they discovered all sorts of lovely, geographical overlaps through the course of their own lives that further deepened their partnership. Raised in the Midwest, Glatz enjoyed a childhood marked by frequent visits to museums and the theatre, cultivating an interest in the arts early on. Upon visiting Natchez as an adult, she recalled how, as a child, she leafed through one of her parents’ coffee table books featuring the historic homes of Natchez. Dreaming up Allumer Natchez with Conde was truly a full circle moment. She moved
to New Orleans just prior to Hurricane Katrina, after which she witnessed the distinct ways the arts can contribute to healing in a community traumatized. For Conde, art has long been a family affair. Her mother is a multi-disciplinary artist, her husband Andrés Conde is a painter (whom she represents through her gallery), she is a writer. She grew up in Miami (her grandparents were married in New Orleans and later moved to Miami) and spent summers in Mississippi, visiting her grandmother’s family. She relocated Conde Contemporary (which she opened in 2013) from Miami to Natchez in the
