A splash of color has landed over the Southside Trail in Southwest Atlanta, and all it takes to see it is looking up. The new piece is a massive work celebrating nearby neighborhoods, visible to anyone strolling the trail near where it meets the Pittsburgh Yards campus off University Avenue, as reported by CBS News.
The installation is called “Quilts in the Sky,” and it's positioned right where the trail meets the Pittsburgh Yards campus off University Avenue, according to Pittsburgh Yards. The sculpture was commissioned and presented by the Atlanta BeltLine, created by artists Adana Tillman and Marryam Moma, with master fabrication handled by Antonio Darden, per the same Pittsburgh Yards announcement.
Built from steel, laser-cut plexiglass and colored acrylic, the piece blends traditional African American quilting narratives with floral paper-cut collage, casting kaleidoscopic light across the pedestrian path throughout the day, the announcement notes. It's described as free and open for everyone to explore. Earlier reporting from arts news outlet Arts ATL also described the work as planned for unveiling along the Southside Trail adjacent to the Gateway at Pittsburgh Yards, rooted in traditional quilt designs and collage assemblage.
Part of a Growing Outdoor Gallery
“Quilts in the Sky” joins a trail that's been collecting public art for well over a decade. Murals have appeared along the BeltLine since 2010 as part of the Art on the Atlanta BeltLine initiative's BeltLine Walls program, according to ArtsATL. That program's fifth wave of murals wrapped up in June, the outlet reports, and included three works on the Southside Trail itself: “Field Trip” by Seven, “Passerine” by Jonesy and “Terri's Heart” by Aysha Pennerman, all painted on different sides of the Argos USA wall at 885 Glenwood Avenue.
Pennerman's piece carries personal weight. “I dedicated it to my aunt who passed away last year. Her favorite animal was an elephant,” she told ArtsATL. A second phase of her mural project also brought in students from Parkside School, who pitched proposals, built budgets and presentations, and ultimately painted their own artwork alongside hers, per the outlet's reporting.
A Fall Season of New Installations
Beyond the murals, ArtsATL has separately covered other fall additions to the BeltLine's art lineup, including a large-scale mural by Chloe Alexander titled “The Light We Carry” at the Ralph David Abernathy underpass along the Southwest Trail. And in 2024, Atlanta BeltLine Art's exhibition season added three new visual art installations across the trail system, according to a BeltLine press release.
Those 2024 works included Charity Hamidullah's “How We Grew Together” beneath the Park Drive Bridge in Piedmont Park on the Northeast Trail, Aziza Andre's “RENASCENT” murals at The Penman on the Southeast Trail, and the Asian American Advocacy Fund's “Threads of Justice,” displayed on the Eastside Trail opposite Ladybird and the Bicycle Barn for at least 30 days. Together with “Quilts in the Sky,” the additions reflect a trail system that keeps turning its underpasses, walls and open-air corridors into rotating public galleries, one neighborhood at a time.
