✦ Lois Reitzes ✦ Compassionate Corridor ✦ WigWag ✦ Niki in the Garden ✦ Gulch’s Making it Work ✦ Bent Frequency presents ✦

Welcome to The ATL Arts Collective, powered by ArtsATL. This is your new home for stories from Atlanta’s arts scene, with reporting from ArtsATL writers, conversations with artists, and voices from across the creative community.

Each week, Kim Drobes will be joined by a rotating co-host: someone you may already know, or someone you’re about to be very glad you met.

And today… Lois Reitzes! 

courtesy of Lois Reitzes

✦ Lois Retizes is a Public Radio superstar. After retiring in 2025, she holds the record for the longest-running voice in Atlanta radio (45½ years). Reitzes created and hosted both Second Cup and City Lights on WABE and is a lifelong advocate and amplifier of the arts. She’s also a fan of nicknames, just in case you’re wondering why she affectionately calls Kim “KDro.” 😂

Shannon Willow stands with her sculpture, 'Lungs of Mother Earth,' at a pocket park in Scottdale. (Photo by Isadora Pennington)

✦ The Compassion Corridor: Public Art in Scottdale

What if a piece of public art could help an entire community breathe easier? Well, an emerging outdoor greenspace anchored by the Path is hoping to do just that through connection and community. ArtsATL senior editor Isadora Pennington has the story of the Compassion Corridor.

courtesy of Robet Lee and WigWag

✦ WigWag 2026: Avondale Estates Arts District Festival

This Saturday, May 2nd, the streets of Avondale Estates Arts District will close to traffic and come alive with the sound of music alongside local makers, vendors, and artists. It’s WigWag 2026, and joining us now is the man behind the curtain, Robert Lee from Methane Studios.

courtesy of The Atlanta Botanical Garden 

✦ Niki de Saint Phalle’s "Niki in the Garden" at the Atlanta Botanical Garden

There are many ways to acknowledge a milestone anniversary. Some people give flowers – a small bouquet, perhaps a dozen. The Atlanta Botanical Garden began celebrating its 50th anniversary with Atlanta SUPER Blooms – nearly 140,000 tulips and daffodils have been on the great lawn all month. And now, a spectacular exhibition of 41 works by the late French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle will be on view from May 9 through September 6. Lois Retizes recently discussed the upcoming exhibition, Niki in the Garden, with Mary Pat Matheson, President and CEO of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. 

Building out Hawkins HQ (photo credit Jasmine Hentschel)

✦ Making It Work: Alexander Hawkins of Hawkins HQ

Gulch is a printed magazine about Atlanta’s visual art scene, created by Jasmine Hentshel and EC Flamming. It’s quite an undertaking, absolutely gorgeous, and Volume 2 is currently available. Jasmine and EC are very connected to our city’s art world, and they’re joining us monthly for their new segment, Making It Work, which investigates how local creatives avoid being “starving artists.” These are personal stories from Atlanta artists about how they make a living for themselves through art. Today, they talk with Alexander Hawkins of Hawkins HQ and learned how he found the money to change parts of an abandoned motel into a functional and beautiful art gallery. (spoiler alert - he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty.)

Bent Frequency founders Jan Berry Baker and Stuart Gerber. (Photo by Steve Eberhardt)

✦ Bent Frequency Concludes Season with Steve Reich Masterpiece

Contemporary classical specialists Bent Frequency are concluding their 2025-26 season with a special free concert on Sunday at Kopleff Recital Hall on the Georgia State University campus. The afternoon program includes recitals of the three winning entries to Underscore, an annual open call for composition submissions organized by Bent Frequency. Also included is Music for 18 Musicians, Steve Reich’s “masterpiece of momentum” performed by an assemblage of the city’s talent-rich new-music community. Arts reporter Doug DeLoach has the story.

courtesy of the ASO

✦ ArtsATL Weekend Best Bets with Shane Harrison

ArtsATL’s executive editor Shane Harrison stops by with his picks for this week's Best Bets, and today his mix includes comedy, a jazz legend, and an abundance of photography.

Special thanks to today’s sponsors:

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The ArtsXchange

Bookish Atlanta

Join us on social at @artsatlanta and @atlartscollective.

Let's lift the artists shaping Atlanta together. Show up, spread the word, and be part of the community. And if you’re able, consider donating to the ATL Arts Collective. Your support helps cover production costs and keeps this show going strong for years to come. 

Our theme music is K Michelle Dubois' Hit the Deck from her album Astral Heart, courtesy of Wicked Superb Records. 

The ATL Arts Collective is part of the Wordplay Collective podcast family. Check out our sister show, In Pieces with R Land, for conversations with artist R. Land. 

Thank you for listening!

✦ Aja Arnold ✦ Atlanta Film Festival turns 50 ✦ Lillian Blades Exhibition ✦ Scattrbrain ✦ Art News ✦ Venus ✦ Best Bets ✦

Welcome to The ATL Arts Collective, powered by ArtsATL. This is your new home for stories from Atlanta’s arts scene, with reporting from ArtsATL writers, conversations with artists, and voices from across the creative community.

Each week, Kim Drobes will be joined by a rotating co-host: someone you may already know, or someone you’re about to be very glad you met.

And today...Aja Arnold!

courtesy of Aja Arnold

courtesy of the Atlanta Film Festival

✦ The 50th Anniversary of the Atlanta Film Festival

Fifty years ago, a group of Atlantans started a film festival with no major backing and no guarantee it would last. But it didn’t just survive; it continues to grow, powered by people who believe this city has stories worth telling. This story was based on an interview by film reporter Steve Murray, and you can read Steve’s full story on the Atlanta Film Festival at ArtsATL.org.

Photo by Kevin Storer

✦ Lillian Blades' "Sanctuary" at the Emma Darnell Museum

Lillian Blades is a powerhouse in the Atlanta art scene, known for vibrant, maximalist pieces that weave together her Bahamian roots and West African ancestry. But her latest exhibition, Sanctuary, at the Emma Darnell Aviation Museum, offers something more than just finished masterpieces; it offers a rare look at an artist in the middle of a transformation. Dr. Kevin Storer, a scholar and critic who recently reviewed the show for ArtsATL stops by.

Scattrbrain performing at their first headlining show at Drunken Unicorn on March 19, 2026. Photo credit: Christian M Photography (@christian_m_photography on IG)

Special thanks to today’s sponsors:

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The ArtsXchange

Join us on social at @artsatlanta and @atlartscollective.

Let's lift the artists shaping Atlanta together. Show up, spread the word, and be part of the community. And if you’re able, consider donating to the ATL Arts Collective. Your support helps cover production costs and keeps this show going strong for years to come. 

Our theme music is K Michelle Dubois' Hit the Deck from her album Astral Heart, courtesy of Wicked Superb Records. 

The ATL Arts Collective is part of the Wordplay Collective podcast family. Check out our sister show, In Pieces with R Land, for conversations with artist R. Land. 

Thank you for listening!

00:00 Introduction & Meet Guest Co-Host Aja Arnold

✦ Jon Goode and National Poetry Month ✦ Illumine at Oakland Cemetery ✦ Illuminating Noguchi ✦ Best Bets ✦ Yum Yum Tree ✦ Smoke at the Goat Farm ✦ Record Store Day ✦

Welcome to The ATL Arts Collective, powered by ArtsATL. This is your new home for stories from Atlanta’s arts scene, with reporting from ArtsATL writers, conversations with artists, and voices from across the creative community.

Each week, Kim Drobes will be joined by a rotating co-host: someone you may already know, or someone you’re about to be very glad you met.

And today...Jon Goode!

Photo courtesy of Jon Goode

✦ Three-time Emmy-nominated writer, performer, and poet Jon Goode joins as guest co-host. He’s the author of Black Curio and host of The Moth and Show & Tell. In honor of National Poetry Month, he shares his suggestions for open mics and explains why Poetry is so important to culture and history. 

Jon’s suggestions for poetry:

Urban Grind on Thursdays

ArtsXchange Spring Fling Poetry Slam on April 24

The Book Bird

Anything by Abyss or Georgia Me

Photo by George Gomez

✦Illumine Immersive Art Experience at Historic Oakland Cemetery

Beginning tomorrow, Oakland Cemetery is set to come alive with art and music. It’s the return of Illumine, a multi-sensory art experience curated by Cat Eye Creative. ArtsATL senior editor for art+design and dance, Isadora Pennington, went for a sneak peek to learn how multiple artists are transforming Atlanta’s oldest and most historic cemetery into immersive art installations. 

Photo by Steve Eberhardt, Krewe puppeteers (and their creators) Cameron & Joy Ayer.

✦ Illuminating Noguchi: Chantelle Rytter’s Lantern Parade Collective Joy

If you've ever seen a river of light flowing down the Atlanta Beltline, you've seen the work of Chantelle Rytter. We talk to the artist and crew captain behind Atlanta's iconic lantern parades about how she's made the practice of turning public spaces into galleries of collective joy. She shares details on her collaboration with the High Museum for Illuminating Noguchi, an event that culminates in a glowing procession from the museum to the historic Noguchi playscape in Piedmont Park. 

Photo courtesy Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

✦ ArtsATL Weekend Best Bets with Shane Harrison

ArtsATL executive editor Shane Harrison stops by with his picks for the week’s Best Bets. Today, his mix includes a chance to catch the ASO in Piedmont Park, a feast for French film lovers, and the Black Boy Art Show. Shane’s full list of this week’s 9 essential Atlanta arts events is at ArtsATL.org.

Photo courtesy of Team Clermont

✦ The Yum Yum Tree

Music reporter Jordan Owen talks to The Yum Yum Tree’s bassist/vocalist Andy Gish to learn what a primate, Peter Gabriel, and our city’s shifting economic tides have to do with the band’s new album, Turn Down the Noise.

Photo by Mitali Singh

✦ Smoke at The Goat Farm

Arts reporter Mitali Singh visits the Goat Farm for a sneak peek at their upcoming show Smoke. It’s a live performance blending contemporary dance, performance art, and electronic pop. 

Image by mgattorna from Pixabay

✦Atlanta Record Store Day Guide with Author Chad Radford

Record Store Day is this Saturday, and music writer, Rad/ATL founder, and the man who literally wrote the book on Atlanta’s independent record stores, Chad Radford, stops by. Chad’s the former music editor of Creative Loafing and the author of Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History. So, if you want to know which crates to dig through this Record Store Day, there’s no better guide. (Chad’s interview was cut short for time, so “Part 2” will come out as a bonus episode this Friday and includes a list of records that Chad hopes to aquire this Record Store Day)

Special thanks to today’s sponsors:

The Alliance Theatre

Soul Food Cypher 

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The ArtsXchange

The Sun ATL

Join us on social at @artsatlanta and @atlartscollective.

Let's lift the artists shaping Atlanta together. Show up, spread the word, and be part of the community. And if you’re able, consider donating to the ATL Arts Collective. Your support helps cover production costs and keeps this show going strong for years to come. 

Our theme music is K Michelle Dubois' Hit the Deck from her album Astral Heart, courtesy of Wicked Superb Records. 

The ATL Arts Collective is part of the Wordplay Collective podcast family. Check out our sister show, In Pieces with R Land, for conversations with artist R. Land. 

Thank you for listening!

Atlanta's arts scene deserves coverage as dynamic as the city itself. But... what is the arts and culture vibe in Atlanta right now?

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The ATL Arts Collective launches on April 15. Follow now and join us then. 

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