News
March 28, 2017WMHT Premieres Documentary on Local, Public Art Installation, “Breathing Lights”
An intimate exploration of the multi-city Breathing Lights art installation
that illuminated the Capital Region Autumn 2016
Troy, New York, March 24, 2017 – WMHT-TV (PBS) presents a new documentary, BEHIND THE LIGHTS, premiering April 17, 2017 at 10pm. The documentary brings to life the story and essence of Breathing Lights, a multi-city public art installation in the Capital Region. Free preview screening Friday, April 7, 2017 at Proctors.
In April 2015, the cities of Albany, Schenectady and Troy united to compete with 237 cities nationwide for a one-million dollar grant in the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge Initiative. Artist Adam Frelin and Architect Barb Nelson partnered to create a temporary Public Art Display that illuminated hundreds of vacant buildings using a ‘breathing effect’ with LED lights developed with the help of RPI’s Lighting Research Center. Albany, Schenectady and Troy are not unlike other industrial era cities around the country that have lost both population and jobs, and are peppered with, abandoned vacant buildings. Breathing Lights’ goal was to ‘create an evocative, inclusive experience that transforms perceptions of vacant buildings and showcases an arts-based approach to stimulating local and regional revitalization.’
WMHT has been intimately involved in the project, beginning with the creation of a video animation illustrating the illumination effect that was submitted as part of the successful application. WMHT documented meetings, public discussions, events, and captured the behind-the-scenes story of this massive undertaking. It is from these hundreds of hours of footage that BEHIND THE LIGHTS was created.
‘Art has the capacity to build communities and this community-driven project showed that the Capital Region can come together in support of a singular idea,’ says Robert Altman, WMHT President and CEO. ‘As the region’s only full-service public broadcaster, WMHT is committed to telling the stories of our community. This unprecedented public art installation was unique in its inception and we felt it was our duty to preserve it by creating this documentary.’
WMHT’s BEHIND THE LIGHTS takes you inside the minds of the project creatives, tours you through the vacant buildings, and shares delicate moments of the sprawling installation, from concept to completion.
The unprecedented public art installation was illuminated during the months of October and November 2016 and will officially wrap on April 7, 2017 with a Project Finale and Policy Summit taking place at Proctors beginning at 10am as well as a FREE preview screening of WMHT’s BEHIND THE LIGHTS at 7pm. For more information on the finale event and how to register, visit breathinglights.com
BEHIND THE LIGHTS premieres Monday, April 17, 2017 at 10pm on WMHT-TV. Additional airdates in April. Free preview Screening Friday, April 7, 2017 at 7pm following the Breathing Lights Project Finale and Policy Summit at Proctors in Schenectady.
Support for BEHIND THE LIGHTS is provided by The Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region, The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and by contributions to WMHT’s Venture Fund including one from Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi.
For more information and to preview BEHIND THE LIGHTS visit: wmht.org/behindthelights
