InLight festival illuminates downtown Richmond

Downtown Richmond's second-annual InLight Festival Fright night transformed the area from East Broad to East Grace streets into a luminescent exhibition of contemporary art.

The festival, presented in association with the non-profit 1708 Gallery, was designed to showcase the work of 26 international artists and to promote the arts as a form of community involvement - a theme that was also addressed earlier that evening at UR Downtown's open house.

Highlights of this year's festivals included a large video projection on the facade of Verizon headquarters, a project by Brooklyn artist Ed Purver and performance art featuring dancers donning recycled-paper costumes illuminated by LED lights. The event also featured live music by several local artists and a community lantern parade.

One of the gallery's largest lantern-producing efforts featured local artists Matt Lively and David Culpepper of the 1708 Gallery. In a project that involved both the gallery and the local community, Lively and Culpepper constructed over 200 small, house-shaped lanterns outfitted with LED lights and magnets, which allowed them to adorn lamp posts, fire hydrants and even some parked cars. The faces of the paper houses were decorated by local elementary and high school students before being sent back to be painstakingly assembled and distributed to the public along the parade route.

Although the lanterns themselves might have been overlooked as a minor detail amidst the grandeur of many of the evening's instillations, it was perhaps one of the most reflective of the festival's ambition of community involvement in the arts. When asked about the motivation for his all his efforts, Lively's answer became self-evident after he turned his attention to two young children jumping to stick one of his lanterns to a "no parking" sign.

Although still in its infancy as a cultural tradition in Richmond, the InLight festival is shaping up to be a prominent event in the Richmond arts scene as well as in the community.

Contact reporter Cate Harkin at caitlyn.harkin@richmond.edu