Ten Illuminated Spirit Figures Shine Throughout Broadway Malls from
Columbus Circle to 70th St. as Symbols of Hope and Resilience
As the holiday season begins and as a sign of brighter days ahead, the Lincoln Square Business Improvement District (BID) announced today the installation of a brand new, choreographed lighting display Tumbling Brights, a procession of ten lighted spirit figures that are currently illuminating the Broadway malls from Columbus Circle up to 70th St. this holiday season as symbols of hope, resilience and community solidarity.
Somersaulting their way through the neighborhood, each ethereal figure is positioned at different angles in a coordinated acrobatic display heading up from Columbus Circle and down from 70th St., converging in Dante Park across from Lincoln Center at the Statue of Dante Alighieri. The grounds of Dante Park will be delicately illuminated as well, and the Statue will have a light projection with a constellation of stars warmly welcoming residents and visitors to the neighborhood. The full lighting installation will be on display through February 28, 2021.
The installation is designed by New York-based lighting firm Linnaea Tillett Lighting Design Associates with Seth Tillett. The brother and sister team drew their inspiration for this spirited installation from the Lincoln Square neighborhood itself as a center for arts and culture. Seth Tillett is a theater and augmented reality designer whose industry has been essentially shuttered since the beginning of the public health crisis. Inspired by the neighborhood, the lighting design also represents a show of solidarity for the arts and culture community and the hope that the lights of Lincoln Square’s performing arts culture will return stronger and brighter than ever before. These bright figures are also a tribute to the vibrancy and strength of all New Yorkers, including the business community, which stands ready to safely welcome guests to the neighborhood over the holidays in compliance with local and state social distancing guidelines.
The figures were fabricated by Twoseven Inc., a multidisciplinary design firm also based in NYC, part of the BID’s efforts to support local businesses and artistic creation. The lights are also sustainable and environmentally friendly and are not wrapped around any trees.
“The holidays for the Lincoln Square neighborhood this year are about hope, hope for a healthy holiday season and hope for a better tomorrow,” said Monica Blum, President of the Lincoln Square BID. “We hope this new, unique lighting display will lift the spirits of residents and visitors to our neighborhood and serve as a source of strength and inspiration to help us all through these challenging times.”
“We felt that a flow of figures uptown from Columbus Circle and downtown from 70th street would deliver a dynamic gathering of spirits to Dante Park. While best known for The Inferno, Dante’s most luminous words are reserved for Paradise and the ceaselessly revolving lights of the heavens. Emerging from darkness into the light became a key theme of this installation, and we are proud to support the Lincoln Square BID’s message of hope and resilience,” said Designer Seth Tillett.
Linnaea Tillett Lighting Design Associates’ projects in NYC include the newly opened Pier 26 at Hudson River Park, the Battery Bosque, and the forthcoming Morgan Library and Museum Garden.
The Lincoln Square BID sincerely thanks Glenwood, Con Edison, Ogden CAP Properties, 15 Central Park West, Deutsche Bank, TD Bank, Fidelity Investments, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and the New York City Department of Transportation for making this lighting installation possible.
For more information on the Lincoln Square BID along with a list of open businesses and restaurants, please visit www.lincolnsquarebid.org.
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About the Lincoln Square BID:
The Lincoln Square BID is a not-for-profit tax-exempt organization whose mission is to make Lincoln Square cleaner, safer, and more beautiful, and to undertake various improvement projects. Efforts are focused on supplemental sanitation and security services; the beautification of public spaces, malls, and parks; and the promotion and marketing of the area’s diverse business and cultural offerings. The Lincoln Square BID acts as a catalyst working with business, community, and City partners to promote positive change in Lincoln Square. The BID’s programs and initiatives are designed to foster tourism and to showcase the rich and varied resources of this vibrant Upper West Side neighborhood. For more information, please call (212) 581-3774 or visit www.lincolnsquarebid.org.
About Linnaea Tillett Lighting Design Associates
Linnaea Tillett Lighting Design Associates creates imaginative, technically innovative, and ecologically-sensitive lighting programs for the landscape and built environment – public and private, intimate, and urban. The firm has forged a highly acclaimed body of work by treating every design challenge as an opportunity to find the poetic in the functional, the elegant in the robust, and simplicity in technical and regulatory complexity. Each project is grounded in a highly nuanced understanding of the perceptual, affective, and symbolic dimensions of light. The firm has 35 years of experience with projects across the United States and beyond. The firm is a nationally certified WBE.
About Seth Tillett
Seth Tillett is an artist and theater designer, as well as a freelance art director of augmented reality environments. He has designed over a hundred stages for Opera, Theater, and Ballet in Europe, for which he also created lighting and occasionally composed music. Most recently Tillett was the art director for David Bowie is, the elaborate augmented reality iteration of the acclaimed exhibition of Bowie’s life and work. Tillett lives and works in NYC.
