Lanterns in the Works

Glowing night procession planned for Buffalo Bayou Park opening and you can help light it up

When Buffalo Bayou Partnership celebrates the official grand opening of Buffalo Bayou Park on October 3, among the numerous activities will be an after-dark procession of hundreds of whimsical lanterns representing various aspects of Houston.

An alligator, a margarita glass, an art car, even an athletic shoe, all lighted by batteries, will be carried aloft by volunteers in four roaming corteges moving between between Carruth Bridge at the Houston Police Officers Memorial and the Sabine Street Bridge.

Twenty-nine floating lanterns in the shape of magnolias will be escorted along the bayou by supporters in kayaks.

Created by Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles of Processional Arts Workshop in New York, the presentation, titled "Confluence: A Journey in Five Movements," is a community-wide project enlisting volunteers to both create the lanterns and to carry them during the procession.

"We really love the fact that this is a community-based activity," said Trudi Smith, Buffalo Bayou Partnership director of public relations and events. "People come together and make new friends here."

In a workshop at the corner of Canal and Navigation east of downtown, volunteers are pouring in daily to help assemble lanterns in the shape of mosquitos, rabbits, nutria, boats, cowboy boots, fish and more. In all, there will be 55 large lanterns and around 150 smaller lanterns created by children in school programs. Twenty-nine floating lanterns in the shape of magnolias will be escorted along the bayou by supporters in kayaks. (That odd number represents the 29 years that the partnership has existed.)

The workshops run through August 14 and interested individuals can sign up for a shift here.

The current flock of lanterns is in the early stages of construction with bamboo and wire employed to create the frame, later to be followed by the application of papier maché and then colored paper. Professional puppeteer and retailer (Iko Iko) Camella Clements and artist Justin Dunford are leading this session of workshops that continue through most of August.

Volunteers walk in off the street to help, some get such a kick out of the project that they return several times. Cases in point, cartoonist and artist Mary Lawton and sculptor Arnold Vanek, who were working on a nutria and a fish, respectively, on a recent afternoon.

A pooch, representing Buffalo Bayou Park's dog park, will be part of the procession.

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A Roman Holiday (Season)

All roads lead to Houston museum's blockbuster exhibit of Imperial Rome

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

Houston's holiday season will have a distinctly Roman feeling this year, as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is bringing the glory of the Gladiator era to Texas. On November 2, 2025 through January 25, 2026 the MFAH presents the monumental new exhibition “Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times.”

Featuring 160 objects of antiquity, including marble sculptures, frescoes, mosaics, delicate glass vessels, and exquisite bronze artifacts, the exhibition will transport visitors back in time to the Roman Empire during a flowering of art and architecture. The MFAH partnered with the Saint Louis Art Museum to organize the exhibition, which will showcase many pieces that have never been on view in the U.S.

While Emperor Trajan might not be the most famous — or in some cases, most infamous — of the Roman emperors, he ruled between 98 and 117 C.E. during the empire’s height and was the second of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. He was also the first emperor born outside of present-day Italy, in what is now Andalusia, Spain. During his reign, he granted citizenship and rights to some peoples from conquered lands. The exhibition will explore how this time period expanded what it meant to be a Roman and how art reflected Rome’s power and promoted the empire’s values and ideals.

$\u200bThe Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times"$

Photo courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston presents "Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times" ("Statue of Trajan" Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples)

From statues of prominent men and women of the era, including Trajan, to vivid frescoes and furnishing from the villas of Pompeii, the objects in the exhibition will tell fascinating cultural and political stories of life in imperial Rome. To add context to the artworks and objects of antiquity, the MFAH will recreate a section of Trajan’s Column, which was a towering pillar with a spiraling narrative frieze, one of the few monumental sculptures to have survived the fall of Rome.

“Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” brings such a wealth of objects to Houston thanks to unprecedented loans from the renowned antiquities collections of Italian museums including Museo Nazionale Romano, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Parco Archeologico di Ostia, and the Musei Vaticani. It would would likely take months of travel across Italy to see this much art.

“This is truly a rare opportunity for U.S. audiences to experience spectacular objects from this glorious era of the Roman Empire,” said Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, in a statement. “We are enormously grateful to our colleagues in Rome, Naples, and Vatican City for lending these treasures to us and broadening the appreciation of Italy’s cultural heritage.”

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