Are you ready for the two brightest nights of the year in downtown Santa Cruz?
Once a year the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History transforms the museum, the adjacent Abbott Square, and Cooper Street into a festival of fire, light, and illuminated digital art.
GLOW 2014 is a two day festival. The first night is A Festival of Light and the second night is A Festival of Fire. The 3rd annual GLOW Festival takes place on Friday, October 17th & Saturday, October 18th, 2014.
Attendees will be treated to elaborate illuminated digital art, live performances, and plenty of interactive exhibits. This is a chance to see world class artists and performers who you would be more likely to see at Burning Man than your average museum exhibit.
Simply put, it’s a spectacle, and one you won’t want to miss.
While GLOW 2014 is full of new artists, exhibits and performances, you can get a feel for what is in store by checking out this video from last year’s event:
Interested? Read on to see what’s in store for GLOW 2014…
Friday Night: A Festival of Light
On Friday night the MAH will transform into A Festival of Light. The museum will come alive with glowing dance performances, laser magic tricks, projections, LED sculptures, interactive digital art, and giant shadow puppets.
There will be plenty of illuminated art to see, and performances to watch, but this isn’t just a passive spectator event.
A blacklight activity room will be filled with glowing craft projects, and you and your friends can even apply some glowing face paint and body art tattoos. The art will all glow in the dark on this night, and so can you!
You can also show off your dance moves on artist Christopher Schardt’s 9 foot LED light curtain, which will project a digitized illuminated version of you as you bust a move.
See the LED light curtain in action in the video below:
Other interactive exhibits include:
- Tim Thompson’s Space Pallete, which allows you to play music and create trippy visuals with your hands.
- Stillness, by Jacob Garbe, is an interactive projection which allows visitors to turn into a tree, and move its branches as they move their arms.
- An interactive digital dance app by Deeje Cooley called tappr.tv.
If you’re in more of a spectator mode then don’t worry. There will be plenty of art and performances to keep you enthralled all night long, including performances throughout the night in Abbott Square.
Performance Schedule:
- 7:15 pm: Lasers, lights & magic performances by The Coastal Magicians Club of Santa Cruz County.
- 8:15 pm: Glow in the dark hoop performance from The Hoopalights.
- 8:30 pm: Aurora‘s performance will combine dance, acrobatics and a beautiful display of sparks.
- 9:00 pm: HERD: Emergence, a glowing multi-media performance art piece by Eve Warnock and Kate Spacek
When was the last time you saw dancers use power tools (yes, power tools!) to create sparks on metal as they danced?
Photo Credit: Cliff Warner
This is just a small sampling of what you will experience at the MAH during the Festival of Light night. For a complete listing of artists, exhibits and performances, visit the MAH’s website.
Saturday Night: A Festival of Fire
Night two, A Festival of Fire, brings fire dancing, flaming fire sculptures, dance performances, and fire art of various types to the MAH, Abbott Square, and Cooper Street.
The bright lights won’t be confined to downtown Santa Cruz on this night, thanks to artists Neal Strickberger and Jeremy Crandell, whose Project Flashlight will light up the sky with a powerful searchlight which is likely to be visible for miles. The searchlights, which would put the bat-signal to shame, harness the power of a billion candlepower searchlights and computer controls. Attendees will be able to controll the lights with a phone app.
At 8:00 pm Samba Stilt Circus will perform on Cooper Street. The collective of musicians, stilt walkers, dancers, and fire artists are sure to delight the crowd as they light up the night.
Samba Stilt Circus. Photo by Cliff Warner
A fire breathing pipe organ, called Satan’s Calliope, will be filling the night air with music and flames throughout the evening.
There will also be a flaming wishing well, a forest of fiery trees, fire breathing dragon flies, and much more on this night dedicated to the art of fire.
Click here for more information about the Saturday Night Festival of Fire artists and performances.
Want to See Even More?
Check out these photo galleries from last year’s Festival.
GLOW 2013: Festival of Light:
GLOW 2013: Festival of Fire:
GLOW 2014: Tickets & Event Information
Location
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
705 Front Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Dates
Friday, October 17: A Festival of Light
Saturday, October 18: A Festival of Fire
7:00 pm – 10:00 pm both nights
Tickets
General Admission: $10, $18 for both nights
MAH Members: $5, $8 for both nights
*Tickets the night of are cash only
Purchase tickets, and get more information, here.
Photo Credit, unless otherwise noted: Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
