Portland, OR. With hubs around the city instead of just around OMSI, thousands more people are taking in the 3rd Annual Portland Winter Light Festival than in past years. One eye-catching display called FORM was outside the WeWork Custom House at 220 NW 8th Ave. More than 100 illuminated installations, artists, performers and events brightened the Portland cityscape. The festival is an activity of local nonprofit The Willamette Light Brigade.
The free, all-ages festival February 1-3 expanded to its largest footprint yet, featuring illuminated art installations, live performances, and interactive activities designed to unite the community during the darkest time of the year. (Cosmic Space Worm by Tyler FuQua at Hub B.)
* All events are free!
* Limited parking at most Hubs. Ride the Portland Streetcar for FREE after 5pm Feb 1-3, 2018, or enjoy complimentary rides on the Portland Spirit River Cruises. Boat rides are about 45 minutes; walking between Hub A and B is about 20 minutes.
The 2018 Portland Winter Light Festival is presented by Portland General Electric (PGE) and powered by PGE renewable energy.
Drawing interest and recognition from across the region, the expanded 2018 artist roster showcases talent almost exclusively from the Pacific Northwest. In just its third year, the festival has already established itself as a regional attraction for artists and visitors due to the dazzling and unique installations and family friendly atmosphere.
Highlighted new offerings for 2018:
Significant expansion to sites throughout Portland, including dedicated festival hubs
at OMSI, PGE Headquarters/World Trade Center (downtown), the North Park Blocks including PNCA, and Cathedral Park (St. Johns)
Artworks such as Tyler FuQua’s Cosmic Space Worm (30-foot-long segmented aluminum worm
built on 5 adult tricycles), Tron Pong blacklight ping-pong by James “JT” Thompson, and Light Gardening/A Robot at Play by Richard Miner (a large robot tending a fiber-optic garden)
Stories Around the Fire, presented by former Live Wire host Courtenay Hameister around a fire sculpture
Light Showcase performing arts programming at the World Trade Center Plaza featuring
BodyVox dance company and others
Tesla coil demonstrations at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center
“The Portland Winter Light Festival has already become a favorite wintertime destination for the Portland community,” Chris Herring, Artistic Director of Portland Winter Light Festival said. “Nothing showcases that more than our ability to bring in artists and performers from around the region and expand the footprint of this year’s festival to neighborhoods well beyond anything we’ve been able to do before.”
Popular festival events returning in 2018:
Artworks such as Flamethrower Chandelier by Ryan Ramage, and a 50-foot-tall steel dragon that shoots flames titled Homage to Trogdor by Ivan McLean
Complimentary rides on the Portland Spirit and Sternwheeler, with performances by the
Portland Opera and others
Light Science Talks educational series
Silent Disco headphones dance party
Details for the 3rd Annual Portland Winter Light Festival:
Where: OMSI, PGE Headquarters/World Trade Center, PNCA, Cathedral Park, and more. See citywide festival map for exact locations.
When: 6pm-11pm, February 1-3, 2018 (Thursday through Saturday nights). Cost: Free.
How to get there: Free transportation available to most sites. The Portland Streetcar will once again offer free rides on all routes after 5pm on every night of the event. All installations along TriMet bus routes and limited parking available near all hubs.
**For complete artist listings, programming, and schedules, visit www.pdxwlf.com.
About the Portland Winter Light Festival
The Portland Winter Light Festival (PDXWLF) is Portland’s premier outdoor winter arts event that transforms, illuminates and animates Portland’s nighttime urban landscape. Inspired by light festivals around the world, PDXWLF showcases unique light-based art, community installations and performance, engaging Portland’s diverse communities and creating opportunities for artists, designers, creatives and makers to collectively expand the boundaries of art, performance and technology in our region. The third year of the festival will take place at sites around Portland, Oregon from February 1-3, 2018.
Portland, OR. More than 100 illuminated installations, artists, performers and events will brighten the Portland cityscape this February during the 2018 Portland Winter Light Festival presented by Portland General Electric (PGE) and powered by PGE renewable energy. The free, all-ages festival February 1-3 will expand to its largest footprint yet, featuring illuminated art installations, live performances, and interactive activities designed to unite the community during the darkest time of the year. The festival is an activity of local nonprofit The Willamette Light Brigade.
The Portland Winter Light Festival has had all kinds of attractions over the past two years.
The Portland Spirit Lights were created by Mark LaPierre.
This community-wide festival & celebration illuminates the city’s public spaces with installations by premier light artists and designers.
The festival is presented by and powered by PGE renewable energy.
Drawing interest and recognition from across the region, the expanded 2018 artist roster showcases talent almost exclusively from the Pacific Northwest. In just its third year, the festival has already established itself as a regional attraction for artists and visitors due to the dazzling and unique installations and family friendly atmosphere. The Portland Winter Light Festival is hosted by OMSI and the Portland Spirit as an activity of the Willamette Light Brigade.
Growing beyond the festival’s original central footprint at OMSI, this year the over 100 artists, performers, and creators will have work presented at four creative art hubs throughout the entire city.
Highlighted new offerings for 2018:
Significant expansion to sites throughout Portland, including dedicated festival hubs
at OMSI, PGE Headquarters/World Trade Center (downtown), the North Park Blocks including PNCA, and Cathedral Park (St. Johns)
Artworks such as Tyler FuQua’s Cosmic Space Worm (30-foot-long segmented aluminum worm
built on 5 adult tricycles), Tron Pong blacklight ping-pong by James “JT” Thompson, and Light Gardening/A Robot at Play by Richard Miner (a large robot tending a fiber-optic garden)
Stories Around the Fire, presented by former Live Wire host Courtenay Hameister around a fire sculpture
Light Showcase performing arts programming at the World Trade Center Plaza featuring
BodyVox dance company and others
Tesla coil demonstrations at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center
“The Portland Winter Light Festival has already become a favorite wintertime destination for the Portland community,” Chris Herring, Artistic Director of Portland Winter Light Festival said. “Nothing showcases that more than our ability to bring in artists and performers from around the region and expand the footprint of this year’s festival to neighborhoods well beyond anything we’ve been able to do before.”
Popular festival events returning in 2018:
Artworks such as Flamethrower Chandelier by Ryan Ramage, and a 50-foot-tall steel dragon that shoots flames titled Homage to Trogdor by Ivan McLean
Complimentary rides on the Portland Spirit and Sternwheeler, with performances by the
Portland Opera and others
Light Science Talks educational series
Silent Disco headphones dance party
Details for the 3rd Annual Portland Winter Light Festival:
Where: OMSI, PGE Headquarters/World Trade Center, PNCA, Cathedral Park, and more. See citywide festival map for exact locations.
When: 6pm-11pm, February 1-3, 2018 (Thursday through Saturday nights). Cost: Free.
How to get there: Free transportation available to most sites. The Portland Streetcar will once again offer free rides on all routes after 5pm on every night of the event. All installations along TriMet bus routes and limited parking available near all hubs.
**For complete artist listings, programming, and schedules, visit www.pdxwlf.com.
About the Portland Winter Light Festival
The Portland Winter Light Festival (PDXWLF) is Portland’s premier outdoor winter arts event that transforms, illuminates and animates Portland’s nighttime urban landscape. Inspired by light festivals around the world, PDXWLF showcases unique light-based art, community installations and performance, engaging Portland’s diverse communities and creating opportunities for artists, designers, creatives and makers to collectively expand the boundaries of art, performance and technology in our region. The third year of the festival will take place at sites around Portland, Oregon from February 1-3, 2018.
Portland, OR. If you didn’t have a chance to check out the second annual Portland Winter Light Festival, you’ll enjoy these photos of the highlights. The theme was Between the River and the Stars. This year’s #PDXLightFest expanded to include Zidell Yards on the West side of Tilikum Crossing. Presented by the Willamette Light Brigade and powered by PGE renewable energy, the Portland Winter Light Festival, is a winter event hosted at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).
The Cosmic Messenger by Miki Masuhara-Page is an interactive piece where festivalgoers write messages to one another in chalk “from out of this world and back.”
The Flamethrower Chandelier is a 5-arm chandelier with LEDs and a bowl of fire on each arm made by Ryan Ramage. When pulled, a chain with a crystal handle can be ‘played’ in short poofs or long blasts of pyrotechnics to illuminate the landscape. Inspired by the gasoliers of the 1800s, but also incorporating modern technology, the Flamethrower Chandelier is part steampunk, part cyberpunk, and part percussion instrument.
Stoicheia by Lilli Szafranski and Jesse Banks is an homage to Earth’s earliest thinkers, Plato and Euclid, merging modern technology with the foundations of mathematics, and dedicating it to the culture from which modern academia was born. A perfect dodecahedron, each side depicts the iconography of one of the Twelve Olympians, the major deities of the Greek pantheon.
The Wasabi SOAR ladies got into the spirit of Winter lights.
Ivan McLean enjoys making things that glow in the night. His 14’ Fire Dragon breathes fire and is also a bbq.
The Portland Spirit Lights were created by Mark LaPierre.
Here’s a video of the first year of the festival.
Inspired by light festivals in some of the most popular cities around the globe, the Portland Winter Light Festival is designed to celebrate the spirit of winter and warmth of community. Using light, color, artistry, performance, and imagination, PWLF brings people together during a time of year typically reserved for the indoors. Organizers say bundle up and come celebrate again next February.
Portland, February 6th, 2016. Building facades were glowing with animated projections, light was dancing off the Willamette River near OMSI during the inaugural Portland Winter Light Festival. The festival, organized by the nonprofit Willamette Light Brigade, attracted premier artists who brought excitement to the city during a time of year when it is often quiet.
Chad ‘Fez’ Gaetz of GuildWorks and the Alchemy Arts Collective designed Helianthus Enormae – The giant luminous sunflower.
Hosted by OMSI, no tickets were needed for this event on the East Bank of the Willammette River.
There were many associated events. Clever Cycles had a one-of-a-kind bike parade with battery-powered lights.
For a different view, some took a free ride on the Portland Spirit right to the festival’s hub.
The free event showcased light art and performance from Northwest artists as a series of light-based installations, projections, performances and activities that expand the boundaries of art and technology.
The Portland Winter Light Festival is partnered with 14 Affiliate Events, featuring an array of artists, performers, and interactive experiences during the four nights of the festival.
Featured this year:
ZGF & Uncorked Studios – Wayfinding Towers Clever Cycles – Lighted Bike Parade Night Shade Shadow Theater – Shadow puppet performance Oregon Shadow Theater – Shadow performance Hollywood Theater – Neon Sculpture PNCA – Projector installation Portland Spirit – Free rides and entertainment from Portland Opera Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) – Video Projection PSU School of Art & Design Students – Installation Oregon Rail Heritage Center – Illuminated building The Cosmic Messenger – Interactive lighted sculpture TriMet – Dana Lynn Louis, Circus Luminescence, & Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers
From Portland Winter Light Festival:
The Portland Winter Light Festival (PWLF) is an event of the Willamette Light Brigade, a non-profit organization. The PWLF is a free, community-wide, annual winter arts attraction and cultural event that will transform, illuminate and animate Portland’s nighttime urban landscape each February. It’s focus is a series of light-based installations, projections, performances and activities that expand the boundaries of art and technology.
We gratefully accept donations year round to help the Portland Winter Light Festival grow. Your individual donation is tax deductible as the Willamette Light Brigade (WLB) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
Portland, May 2nd, 2014. The theme of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) gala was OMSI Outdoors. Alex Bellen, Lynn Hennion, Max and Gina Williams, Greg Chaillé, and Susan Lindauer joined nearly 400 guests raised over $691,000 in support of hands-on science programs for children and families across the Northwest. OMSI also honored John and Betty Gray, Fred and Sue Fields, and Bill and Lucy Tagmyer, champions for science education. (photo credit, Andie Petkus)
Supporters raised their glasses to honor OMSI.
Kids and camp counselors added some music and fun to the gala.
Cocktail hour was out in the fresh air on the Willamette.
OMSI President, Nancy Stueber spoke passionately about the organization as emcee Reggie Aqui, from KGW watched on.
From OMSI:
OMSI’s mission is to inspire curiosity through engaging science learning experiences, foster experimentation and the exchange of ideas, and stimulate informed action.
Our vision is to ignite an education transformation at the intersection of science, technology and design, and weave a thriving innovation district into the fabric of Portland, that spreads opportunities across the Northwest.
OMSI is an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and relies on admissions, memberships
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