ELEVATE 2025: Rooted & Rising — Atlanta’s Culture is Medicine

ELEVATE 2025: Rooted & Rising - Atlanta's Culture is Medicine

Atlanta's Public Art Festival Returns October 10-12, 2025

ATLANTA- This October, Atlanta's annual public art festival, ELEVATE, returns with a citywide celebration of that legacy.

Atlanta's story has always been one of rhythm, resilience, and reinvention. From the corner stores and block parties we grew up with to the Southern hip-hop sound that shook the world, the city's culture has long been more than entertainment - it has been a lifeline.

Taking place October 10-12, 2025 across the West End, Sweet Auburn, Castleberry Hill and South Downtown districts, ELEVATE: Rooted & Rising reframes cultural preservation as health equity. Through a multi-site creative and cultural activation, the festival recognizes the spaces and stories of Black Atlanta as vital to collective healing and community well-being.

This year's festival throws it back to Atlanta from the late '80s through the early 2000s - the era that gave rise to Atlanta's global cultural influence. It was a time of skate culture and hair salons, of fashion on the block and sound systems in the park, of storytellers, stylists, and dreamers who built a blueprint for what the world now knows as "Atlanta."

"Rooted & Rising is both a love letter and a call to action," said Adriane V. Jefferson, Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs. "We honor the roots that raised us while uplifting the next generation of cultural caretakers. This festival asks us to remember, reclaim, and reimagine - together."

THREE DAYS OF CULTURE AS MEDICINE

Through music, visual art, storytelling, fashion, food, and wellness, ELEVATE 2025 offers audiences an intergenerational experience - designed for Gen Z and Millennials but rooted in traditions that resonate across all ages. Each day is curated by visionary Atlanta creatives whose work bridges past and future:

• ●Friday, October 10 | Steele Fresh: Rooted in Style, Rising in Sound Curated by Courtney Brooks (visual artist, curator, founder of CBROOKS Gallery), Steele Fresh is an affirmation and immersion experience blending art, music, spoken word, dance, and fashion. The activation uplifts resilience, creativity, and intergenerational connection - creating a marketplace and performance space where Atlanta's artistry thrives.

• ●Saturday, October 11 | The Culture Comb Out Curated by Melissa Alexander (photographer and storyteller), this activation reclaims Underground Atlanta, once a cultural cornerstone. The day begins at Woodruff Park with a community stretch, fitness, and affirmation practice, then unfolds into wellness activations, games, and play at Underground, and ends with a gallery stroll along Artist's Row. It's a throwback and a glow-up - a reminder that old spaces can rise again with new energy.
• ●Sunday, October 12 | Welcome to the West Side Curated by SLW & Steady Productions (Stephen Wilkins & Jordan Neal, founders of Plasma Magazine), this neighborhood-centered celebration highlights Westview as a cultural hub. With workshops, live performances, and a maker's market, the day closes at the Pearl Cleage & Zaron Burnett Center for Culture and Creativity with a documentary screening and community conversation.

By spotlighting cultural preservation as a form of public health, Rooted & Rising highlights how creativity sustains communities. This framing is intentional: just as music, murals, food, and fashion once healed the city in times of struggle, they continue to do so today.

ABOUT ELEVATE Public Art Festival

ELEVATE was envisioned as a different kind of arts festival-one that transforms the entire city into its stage. Instead of confining creativity to a single location with artists as vendors and musicians as entertainment, ELEVATE integrates music, dance, theater, and visual art directly into the urban landscape.

Since its debut in 2011, the festival has been the subject of more than 250 articles highlighting its role in shaping Atlanta's cultural vitality. It has sparked dialogue within City Planning and Urban Design Departments, City Council, and surrounding communities about the value of cultural districts in urban growth.

At its core, ELEVATE is about building bridges-fostering collaboration, inspiring partnerships, and strengthening neighborhoods. Many of its site-specific projects, though conceived as temporary, remain active and continue to enrich their communities.

Nationally recognized, ELEVATE was named one of the top 50 public art projects in the country by the Americans for the Arts Public Art Network and ranked among the top 10 projects for City Livability.

For the full festival schedule and updates, visit https://www.https://elevateatlart.com/

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For more information about the City of Atlanta, please visit https://www.atlantaga.gov or watch City Channel 26. Follow the City of Atlanta on Facebook and Twitter @CityofAtlanta.