Last chance to see Raleigh’s whimsical downtown light art walk during ‘First Friday’ event tonight
Downtown Raleigh’s annual light art walk is coming to a close.
More than a dozen light exhibits and installations put on display Dec. 1 will shine one more night this evening (Jan. 5) on Fayetteville Street and Glenwood Avenue as part of the Illuminate Art Walk. The walk is free and self-guided.
Tonight’s First Friday event is the public’s last chance to see most of the exhibits before they leave the downtown.
“We want (people) to have fun with it, and interact with pieces, take their photos with them,” said Bill King, CEO and president of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. “We want them to experience a bit of whimsy and sort of lightheartedness. And then we obviously want them to experience downtown.”
The headliner for this year’s walk was the Limelight Talking Heads installation, two giant heads, each containing 4,000 individually controlled LED lights. The installation, created by Limelight co-founder Viktor Vicsek, has traveled across the United States and internationally including in Hong Kong, Toronto, Amsterdam, Montreal and Norrköping.
The Talking Heads installation officially left earlier this week, and won’t be on display during the First Friday event.
Each head was nearly 10 feet tall and wide, and weighs 600 to 900 pounds. The two heads straddled Fayetteville Street in City Plaza. The pair were connected by Wi-Fi and react to each other but could also interact with visitors and “conduct conversations by means of light.”
The remaining art installations include works by Raleigh and North Carolina light artists and feature staples of downtown Raleigh’s public art scene including Nate Sheaffer’s Disco Alley on Glenwood Avenue and Thomas Sayre’s Shimmer Wall on the Raleigh Convention Center.
“Raleigh Arts is proud to partner with the DRA for the fourth annual Illuminate Art Walk,” said Sarah Powers, executive director of the city’s Office of Raleigh Arts. “Illuminate invites visitors from all walks of life downtown to experience light-based public art and explore downtown in the evening during the winter season. The Illuminate Art Walk also champions local, regional, and international artists by commissioning, installing, and promoting their work to new audiences.”
A full map of all 18 exhibits can be found online at downtownraleigh.org/illuminate.
Light Art Walk began during COVID-19 pandemic
The art walk began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when indoor events were scarce and downtown Raleigh needed a shot in the arm to get people back on the streets.
“There’s some symbolism in the light in darkness aspect of illuminate, but also there was just a functional (aspect),” King said. “We needed to get people comfortable walking around downtown after dark, and that is a part of what the event does. It gets people down here with enough volume that you feel comfortable.”
Downtown Raleigh averaged 25,000 visitors a night last December, King said.
“The idea of downtown and the holidays is pretty real, but we worked hard and I think have been successful in building an experience for downtown during the holidays with the ice rink, the performing arts center, the (Christmas) tree and Illuminate that this end of downtown does actually have a lot of energy to it, when it doesn’t necessarily always otherwise.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2023 at 2:43 PM.
