Our story begins in 2014…
when a hundred Boston-based artists, creatives, and technologists gathered to conceive of a digital art festival that would serve as a “by us, for us” contemporary demonstration of the city’s creative talent. We pulled dozens of projectors out into the streets, pointed them at familiar facades, and transformed blocks of the city into a new vision of reality through the eyes of its artists. In the years since, ILLUMINUS festivals have attracted over 200 thousand visitors, supported the work of over 350 artists, and produced over 250 site specific installations.
We are proud of everything ILLUMINUS has accomplished since that first festival, and we are excited to move forward with a mission and model that activates all of Boston, empowering emerging artists and engaging communities throughout the city.
Why?
ILLUMINUS uses the creative process of developing and producing light-based public art experiences to enable artists to connect, inspire, and empower their communities.
MISSION
VISION
We are creating a connected city where artists are leaders and every individual feels part of a loving and vibrant community capable of manifesting positive change.
PROCESS
CURATION
We spend the better part of a year working in each neighborhood, and the process for engaging a neighborhood always starts with convening a group of curators. We’ll let them tell you a little bit more…
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Once the curators have selected four cohort artists from the neighborhood, concept development begins. In weekly meetings each artist considers how to elaborate on their traditional artistic practice to envision a world around their ideas, one that is experiential and immersive.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The neighborhood is then invited into the creative process in a series of community engagement events. Free and open to all, these events are opportunities for neighbors to contribute to artists’ projects, meet each other, and build creative camaraderie.
It’s our hope that after attending a few Neighborhood Nights folks begin to see familiar faces and feel invested in each artwork. By the final activation people can see their hand in the work and feel like a part of the ILLUMINUS family.
PRODUCTION
With designs finalized, we work with artists to determine a path to realizing their visions. Artists are hyper-enabled, paired with mentors and experts to collaborate on the production of their multifaceted projects. Depending on the specific needs of their concept, we introduce them to anything from motion capture to VR, animation, audio production, or large-scale sculptural fabrication. Whatever their vision might be, we wrap a team around them to achieve it.
FINAL ACTIVATION
The months of curation, concept development, community engagement, and production culminate in a final ILLUMINUS neighborhood activation. These activations present the completed new works from each cohort artist, and serve as a true authentic expression of the voices and visions of that neighborhood.