Evening visitors to Compton Verney, an art gallery housed in a Warwickshire country mansion, were treated to a visual feast in autumn last year. For 10 evenings over a three-week period, the building and parts of the grounds were illuminated in bright colours, with 1,000 lanterns shining alongside them.
The In Light project was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the birth of landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, who designed Compton Verney’s grounds. The venue worked closely with a light artist to illuminate the main building from two key viewpoints.
Other important elements in Brown’s design, including the trees around the lake, and the chapel, were also lit.
Penelope Sexton, Compton Verney’s curator, who managed the project, says: “We recognised that lighting is really appealing to people, and that it is a good way to reach new audiences.”
Sexton says that about 7,000 people visited Compton Verney during In Light, which ran from 29 October to 13 November 2016. This was higher than the same period the previous year and, based on entry times, Sexton believes at least 4,000 came primarily to see the light show.
Visitors could change the lights’ colours with touch screens at two viewpoints, says Sexton, and other activities, such as light drawing and a music workshop, were on offer.
This was the first time that the venue had carried out this kind of project. It involved a number of new challenges including managing visitor flow, ticketing, and providing outdoor electricity. It also needed to carry out an assessment of the impact on bats. “We had to lower the lights at particular points and not light up certain areas,” Sexton says.
Long established in Europe, light shows and illuminations are now growing in popularity in the UK, with increasing numbers of museums and heritage sites seeing them as a way to attract larger and different audiences.
Many light shows are in autumn and winter – but not all. Last spring, Brighton’s Royal Pavilion was bathed in colours as part of Doctor Blighty, a project about the building’s time as a military hospital for Indian soldiers wounded in the first world war (see box).
One of the UK’s longest-running lightshow events is Illuminating York, which is supported by Arts Council England; since 2005 it has hosted more than 50 light-based artworks from international and local artists. There were over 50,000 visits to the most recent event in October, which involved National Railway Museum, York Minster and other historic sites in the city. The programme included an installation involving moving beams of light in York Minster. The show in the cathedral attracted over 7,000 visitors – about half from outside the city.
Lisa Power, York Minster’s head of venue, points out that it is challenging to host an event in a working cathedral with a heavy schedule of daily services.
“A great deal of the install and testing had to be carried out overnight,” she says. Power says that the show helped the cathedral to engage with audiences under 40. “Illuminating York gave us a wonderful opportunity to invite people to experience the building in a different way,” says Power. “The installation appealed to younger visitors and in many instances it was the first time many of them had been to York Minster.”
Jonathan Knott is a freelance writer
There were a number of possible ways in which we could have presented it, but I was aware that only a limited number of people might visit a traditional display.
Brighton Royal Pavilion is one of the most complicated buildings to project light on to in the country because there are no flat surfaces. Working with a specialist company, we used 23 projectors and had to scan the building a year in advance.
There is some resistance to change in the heritage sector, but I think we won people over. This project introduces an episode in our public memory to a whole new bunch of people. For me, this wasn’t just a story for the Indian soldiers – it was a story for Brighton and for the nation.”
Ajay Chhabra is an artistic director and co-founder of Nutkhut, a performing arts company which aims to bring British South-Asian people’s stories to life
The In Light project was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of the birth of landscape architect Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, who designed Compton Verney’s grounds. The venue worked closely with a light artist to illuminate the main building from two key viewpoints.
Other important elements in Brown’s design, including the trees around the lake, and the chapel, were also lit.
Penelope Sexton, Compton Verney’s curator, who managed the project, says: “We recognised that lighting is really appealing to people, and that it is a good way to reach new audiences.”
Sexton says that about 7,000 people visited Compton Verney during In Light, which ran from 29 October to 13 November 2016. This was higher than the same period the previous year and, based on entry times, Sexton believes at least 4,000 came primarily to see the light show.
Visitors could change the lights’ colours with touch screens at two viewpoints, says Sexton, and other activities, such as light drawing and a music workshop, were on offer.
This was the first time that the venue had carried out this kind of project. It involved a number of new challenges including managing visitor flow, ticketing, and providing outdoor electricity. It also needed to carry out an assessment of the impact on bats. “We had to lower the lights at particular points and not light up certain areas,” Sexton says.
Long established in Europe, light shows and illuminations are now growing in popularity in the UK, with increasing numbers of museums and heritage sites seeing them as a way to attract larger and different audiences.
Many light shows are in autumn and winter – but not all. Last spring, Brighton’s Royal Pavilion was bathed in colours as part of Doctor Blighty, a project about the building’s time as a military hospital for Indian soldiers wounded in the first world war (see box).
One of the UK’s longest-running lightshow events is Illuminating York, which is supported by Arts Council England; since 2005 it has hosted more than 50 light-based artworks from international and local artists. There were over 50,000 visits to the most recent event in October, which involved National Railway Museum, York Minster and other historic sites in the city. The programme included an installation involving moving beams of light in York Minster. The show in the cathedral attracted over 7,000 visitors – about half from outside the city.
Lisa Power, York Minster’s head of venue, points out that it is challenging to host an event in a working cathedral with a heavy schedule of daily services.
“A great deal of the install and testing had to be carried out overnight,” she says. Power says that the show helped the cathedral to engage with audiences under 40. “Illuminating York gave us a wonderful opportunity to invite people to experience the building in a different way,” says Power. “The installation appealed to younger visitors and in many instances it was the first time many of them had been to York Minster.”
Jonathan Knott is a freelance writer
Shedding light on forgotten history
“We wanted to bring the story of the military hospital for Indian soldiers into the public domain and connect with people that wouldn’t otherwise know it. There were a number of possible ways in which we could have presented it, but I was aware that only a limited number of people might visit a traditional display.
Brighton Royal Pavilion is one of the most complicated buildings to project light on to in the country because there are no flat surfaces. Working with a specialist company, we used 23 projectors and had to scan the building a year in advance.
There is some resistance to change in the heritage sector, but I think we won people over. This project introduces an episode in our public memory to a whole new bunch of people. For me, this wasn’t just a story for the Indian soldiers – it was a story for Brighton and for the nation.”
Ajay Chhabra is an artistic director and co-founder of Nutkhut, a performing arts company which aims to bring British South-Asian people’s stories to life