Come make beautiful paper lanterns for your canoe, kayak, or to carry, and then join in magical end-of-summer lantern parades at dusk on Squam and Chocorua Lakes.
On Friday, August 30 and Saturday, August 31, join the Yeoman’s Fund for the Arts and the Chocorua Lake Conservancy for one or more workshops with artist Gowri Savoor. Workshops on Friday will meet at the Craft Building on the Sandwich Fairgrounds in Sandwich, NH, and on Saturday at the Chocorua Library in Chocorua, NH. Workshops both days run from 10AM-3PM for adults and teens 16 & up, and from 1-3PM for kids and younger teens—kids under 10, please bring a helpful adult with you.
Adults will be making a tall pyramid lantern for a canoe or kayak out of willow, rattan and white or painted paper. Kids will learn how to make a colorful painted vellum tower lantern. Participants in the adult workshop might have time to make one of those, as well! The workshops are free, thanks to the Yeoman’s Fund for the Arts, but a voluntary donation toward materials is much appreciated. Space is limited—please register in advance at chocorualake.org/lantern-signup. Participants in the daylong workshop, please bring lunch, snacks & drinks, and a pair of hand clippers if you have one.
Then, bring your lanterns, and a canoe or kayak if you have one, to the first ever lantern flotilla leaving from the town beach on Squam Lake on Friday, August 30 at dusk, and/or to the Chocorua Lake Conservancy’s Annual Picnic and Parade of Lights on Chocorua Lake on Sunday, September 1, at 6PM (parade at dusk), a more than 50-year-old tradition.
About the Presenter:
Gowri Savoor is a visual artist and teaching artist, whose practice includes sculpture, painting and the Indian art of Rangoli. Born in England, she was educated in Manchester and Leeds, and moved to the United States in 2007. Having trained with organizations such as Walk the Plank, she has been teaching local communities to host school and district-wide lantern parades in the UK, and the US. She is passionate about bringing art to the community through participatory art events and has been a teaching artist for over 17 years. Since 2010, Savoor has been the co-organizer and artistic director of A River of Light in Waterbury, as well as facilitator of numerous parades in towns across New England.
Photo: Kelly Fletcher