Arts Festivals Brighten Detroit

The Huffington Post  |  By  Posted: 04/24/2012

When it comes to light art, Detroit is the place to be.

In the fall, two festivals will transform the city’s nights with contemporary, multimedia art that uses the medium of light.

On Oct. 5 and 6, DLECTRICITY will bring artists, lighting designers and architects to Woodward in Midtown to create installations of light, sound, performance and video projection.

The outdoor, nighttime festival is a project of Midtown Inc., Art Detroit Now and other art institutions in the city. It’s tantalizingly described as melding “sci-fi technology with Victorian spectacle.”

Read more at the Huffington Post here.

Dlectricity event organizers hope light draws attention to Detroit’s Midtown

By Michael H. Hodges, Detroit News Fine Arts Writer

Organizers of the Detroit’s new fall festival, Dlectricity – Detroit’s Nighttime Exhibition of Art + Light, said at a press conference this morning they’ve already gotten commitments from five sets of artists, both international and local, to create dazzling outdoor installations for the nighttime event that will take place Oct. 5 and 6.

In all, there will be about 30 art and light projects that planners say will turn Detroit’s Midtown into an illuminated urban spectacle.

The event is timed to coincide with similar light festivals that weekend in New York and Paris — Bring to Light in New York, and Nuit Blanche in Paris.

Dlectricity, which is the brainchild of members of Art Detroit Now, will take place between Kirby Street and Mack Avenue, and Cass Avenue to John R in Detroit’s Midtown. The plan is to focus activity and events at several major nodes that will attract enough in the way of crowds to draw attention.

“Our hope is that people will drive down to see the light,” said Dlectricity curatorial committee member Marc Schwartz, “see audiences in these two places, and feel comfortable parking their car and getting out.”

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120426/ENT01/204260451#ixzz1tFHo2IYn

New outdoor arts fest being planned for Detroit’s Midtown

By Louis Aguilar, The Detroit News

Detroit— A new nighttime, outdoor arts festival is being planned this fall that will illuminate Midtown’s Woodward Avenue corridor with light, sound, performance and video projections.

The two-day festival to be held Oct. 5 and Oct. 6. will be called “DLECTRICITY” and is the brainchild of a wide range of area cultural institutions and galleries, including the Detroit Institute of Art, Cranbook Art Museum, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and a host of others, according to a press release issued late Monday.

The press release describes the festival this way: “Midtown Detroit will be enveloped in a sea of light as a number of artists, both local and international, converge on Detroit to ‘light up’ buildings and spaces using various mediums that meld sci-fi technology with Victorian spectacle, including light, sound, performance and projection on a grand scale.

“The kick-off event will be buoyed by other programming and performances which should entice thousands of Metro Detroit residents and tourists to witness and participate in this monumental initiative.”

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120424/METRO01/204240376#ixzz1tFI4XskV