Night Lights Denver The People's Projector


Night Lights Denver is a permanent way for The Denver Theatre District to support innovative artists with an experimental platform while attracting people downtown to experience a free, rotating projection art show.
Location
Arapahoe Street side of the Daniels & Fisher Tower, located at 1601 Arapahoe St. on the 16th Street Mall.
Artists
The artworks are designed by local, national, and international artists, as well as the greater Denver community.
Dates and Times
Shows run Tuesday – Sunday nights, starting approximately 30 minutes after sunset and looping until midnight.
Free and All Ages
All programs are FREE to attend and appropriate for all-ages.

Current Show

Night Lights Denver D&F Tower Program October 2024
October's Night Lights Denver program on the historic D&F Tower is entitled "Transmutations: An Exquisite Corpse Experiment" and curated by Shana Cruz-Thompson. Featured artists include Jason Biehner, Ahmed Salvador, Sapphire Goss, Kevin Hoth, Leah Diament, Katie Wiegman with Markus Puskar, Sharifa Lafon, and Shana Cruz-Thompson. Pictured: "Hothroids re-animated" by Kevin Hoth.
Oct 1
-
Oct 31, 2024
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About Night Lights

Our vision for this project is that Night Lights Denver truly becomes ‘the people’s projector,’ encouraging Denver to participate and contribute – including the international, national and locally-based artists we pay for commissioned artworks, schools and people walking through the district.

Night Lights Denver partners include Downtown Denver Partnership, Orange Barrel Media and the Daniels & Fisher Tower.

Current & Upcoming Artists

See All Upcoming ArtistS
Transmutations (Various Artists)
October 2024
Transmutations: An Exquisite Corpse Experiment
Transmutations is the culmination of a year-long collaborative project in which eight artists created a series of moving image works, each inspired solely by the final twenty seconds of the preceding artist’s piece. This project, done in the process of the Surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse had one directive: each work must originate through an analog photographic or film process before being transmuted into digital form for projection onto Denver’s iconic Daniels & Fisher Tower. The title speaks to the alchemical journey of transformation, where the tactile and chemical properties of analog materials—silver halides, acetates, nitrates, pigments, and iron salts—are transfigured into non-physical streams of digital code. Curated by Shana-Cruz Thompson and featuring Jason Biehner, Ahmed Salvador, Sapphire Goss, Kevin Hoth, Leah Diament, Markus Puskar, & Sharifa Lafon. Pictured: "Hothroids re-animated" by Kevin Hoth
https://shanacruzthompson.com/transmutationsView artist
Limelight Art
2024
Portal Mycelia
Inspiration came when Senior Artist Alex Riczko read an article about mycelium found on asteroids, and how there is a chance mushrooms effectively came from space. That inspired the visual of bioluminescent mycelium, producing energy so dense and powerful that it has the ability to form portals to other dimensions.
http://www.limelight.artView artist
Paulus van Horne
2024
Oracles Oracle
A sphere is a unitary entity, not easily integrated into a collective body. "Oracles Oracle" is then an exploration of the solitary nature of a sphere, even in a crowded space. Among the chaos of spheres raining down into the Kittredge Building, each object remains itself, continually jostling for position in the crush of objects. The spheres do not become a unit but a crowd, packed together, waiting for the time they can regain their freedom of movement. Just as the Kittredge Building fills entirely with spheres, the floor drops out from beneath the spheres, dispersing them like seeds into the darkness. 
https://paulusvanhorne.com/View artist
Richard Mapes
2024
Working Drawing
"Working Drawing" examines the medium of drawing as the primary document by which architects communicate construction information. But what happens if an architect begins to produce different kinds of drawings to communicate more than just the organizational rationales of construction? Where does beauty live in the architect's drawing, and how is it communicated before the building is built? Looking at line drawings, impressionist paintings and mosaic collages, "Working Drawing" imagines which personas that Denver's Kittredge Building could adopt relative to different possible forms of architectural practice.
http://richardmapes.net/View artist
Cacheflowe
2024
Convolutions
"Convolutions" is a real-time algorithmic animation system that was built specifically to spill across the architecture of the historic Kittredge Building. Built with Cacheflowe's personal creative coding framework called "Haxademic", the software runs continuously, displaying new combinations of patterns and effects that will never repeat the same image. The title ("Convolutions") refers to the low-level graphical processing steps that encourage the organic ornamentations to dance around the surface of the building.
https://cacheflowe.com/View artist
Joel Rekiel, Denver Projection Mapping
Ongoing
SPARK Independence Plaza
SPARK is an after-dark light and projection program hosted throughout downtown. Using the latest in projection mapping technology and equipment, the Denver Theatre District and Downtown Denver Business Improvement District have found a way to fill temporarily empty spaces with light and magic. Artwork at this location created by Joel Rekiel, Denver Projection Mapping. Windows graciously provided by Independence Plaza.
https://denverprojectionmapping.com/View artist
Benjamin Powell
Ongoing
waveform.exp @ 1555 Champa Street
Ongoing
waveform.exp @ 1555 Champa Street
SPARK is an after-dark light and projection program hosted throughout downtown. Using the latest in projection mapping technology and equipment, the Denver Theatre District and Downtown Denver Business Improvement District have found a way to fill temporarily empty spaces with light and magic. Artwork at this location provided by waveform.exp
https://www.waveformexp.com/View artist
waveform.exp @ 1600 California St, 2nd Floor McClintock Building
Ongoing
waveform.exp @ 1600 California, Unit #3
SPARK is an after-dark light and projection program hosted throughout downtown. Using the latest in projection mapping technology and equipment, the Denver Theatre District and Downtown Denver Business Improvement District have found a way to fill temporarily empty spaces with light and magic. Artwork at this location provided by waveform.exp
https://www.waveformexp.com/View artist
Limelight
Ongoing
Micromonumental Mapping: Essence of Creation
"Micromonumental Mapping: Essence of Creation" is a projection mapping artwork, created by Limelight, featuring a 3D-printed, 1/40-scale model of the Opéra de Lille in France. Viewable through the window as part of the SPARK program, you can see it from Sunset until 2:00 AM daily, located near 16th St and Curtis Street on the ground floor level of the 16th Street Center Parking Garage.
https://limelightart.net/View artist
See All Upcoming Artist
Chanee Choi
September 2024
Remembrance: Coral
"Remembrance: Coral" is a biofeedback performance art project I created to confront my fear of inheriting early-onset Alzheimer’s, from which my mother now suffers. The project uses machine learning to create interactive animations, similar to video games, that respond to EEG brain sensor interactions. It merges surrealistic artistic sensibility with technical expertise and represents the culmination of my creative concepts.
https://chaneec.com/View artist
Dev Harlan
September 2024
Speculative Core Samples
"Speculative Core Samples" is part of an ongoing investigation into the material impacts of anthropogenic change on the Earth System. Resembling a geological core sample, the moving image artwork travels through descending layers of sand, stone, plastic, e-waste and artifacts entirely captured using 3D photogrammetry. The artifacts a culture leaves behind - art, tools or refuse - can tell us much about their values. What will future civilizations make of ours?
https://www.devharlan.com/View artist
Iván Casís Jr.
September 2024
Total Confusion
Total Confusion (2024) is an expression of the tumultuous emotions experienced during a separation. It captures the profound sense of loss that comes from parting with a long-term partner, leaving one’s country of origin, and grieving the fragmentation of the family unit. The piece is a visual exploration of the inner turmoil, disorientation, and overwhelming confusion that accompany such deeply personal transitions.
https://www.ivancasis.com/View artist
Nero Chenxuan He
September 2024
Urban Data Mining
"Urban Data Mining" is a projection mapping public digital art project on the iconic Daniels & Fisher Tower, a 325-foot tall historic landmark in downtown Denver, built in 1911. The project digitally reconstructs the tower piece by piece, using 76,484 unique objects. Every material on the tower is meticulously documented, including its color, dimensions, material, and detailed specifications. This information is collected as urban data and displayed as tags that are mapped onto the tower itself, visualizing the data through advanced machine vision techniques. In today’s architectural landscape, it's crucial to consider how buildings deconstruct as thoughtfully as they are assembled. By creating an urban mining database, we gain a powerful tool for not only preserving historic buildings but also for enabling future architectural upcycling. The architectural "kit of parts" from the Daniels & Fisher Tower emerges from these tags, extending like living limbs that interact with the street below, exploring new possibilities and styles within this complex, data-rich interface. This project exemplifies the potential of information overload in reshaping our understanding and engagement with architectural heritage.
https://he-x-agon.com/View artist
Valentina Ferrandes
September 2024
BLOOM
“…how unlucky for us, the earth, was abundant…” "BLOOM" turns the facade of the Daniel & Fischer Tower into a canvas of metamorphic abstraction using CGI materials, and breathing life into classic iconography. Inspired by the metamorphic processes of nature, the 3D animation blends Mediterranean statuary, ancient Greek symbols of fertility, sunlight and harmony with abstract elements. Samples of natural forms emerge, mutate and loop as 3D models of Greek relics evolve into procedural shapes that echo the organic growth of soft corals and evergreen vines. With "BLOOM", Valentina delves into the richness of archetypal forms and explores how synthetic imagery brings to life the interconnectedness of our natural and built environments.
https://www.valentinaferrandes.com/View artist
See All past Artist
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