Lois Reitzes co-hosts + a compassionate corridor, Niki de Saint Phalle, WigWag + how Hawkins HQ is making it work

✦ 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)

✦ 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

✦ 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 

✦ 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)

✦ 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)

✦ 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’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!

 

 

00:00:00 Welcome to the ATL Arts Collective and welcome Lois Retizes

00:02:55 Compassion Corridor — Lungs of Mother Earth

00:08:04 Conversation with Lois — Retirement & Transition

00:10:59 WIGWAG Art & Music Festival

00:19:20 Niki de Saint Phalle at the Atlanta Botanical Garden

00:32:13 Making It Work — Hawkins HQ (Jasmine Henschel & E.C. Flamming)

00:43:00 Bent Frequency — Underscore Competition & Music for 18 Musicians

00:51:22 ArtsATL Best Bets

00:56:48 Closing Remarks & Next Week Preview