All Over Albany

Breathing Lights discussion at Opalka Gallery

One of illuminated buildings in a recent concept test in Schenectady. / photo: Hyers + Mebane

The lead artist and lead architect for Breathing Lights -- Adam Frelin and Barbara Nelson -- will be at the Opalka Gallery on the Sage Albany campus this Tuesday to talk about the large upcoming public art project.

Breathing Lights won up to $1 million from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge. It's set to illuminate hundreds of vacant buildings in Albany, Schenectady, and Troy neighborhoods this fall. Project blurbage:

Warm light will fill each window with a diffuse glow that mimics the gentle rhythm of human breathing. Concentrated in neighborhoods with high levels of vacancy, Breathing Lights will transform abandoned structures from pockets of shadows into places of warmth.

This unprecedented, multi-city installation will also transform public streets into an evocative experience and will provide a platform to reinvigorate stakeholders around the Capital Region's most visible symptom of decades of disinvestment. Working with over 25 community and private-sector partners, Breathing Lights includes eight months of programming and events, including: youth media projects, building reclamation clinics, community arts presentations, policy discussions and more. ...

In response to a call for proposals from the Mayors of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, Breathing Lights was designed to use one of the region's historical assets, lighting technology, to illuminate this issue, start conversations, inspire artistic expressions by citizen artists, and spotlight the efforts of reclamation in each community.

This project will get more attention as it develops this year, both due to its scale and because it's touching on an important topic in the Capital Region. It also prompts some questions about how such a project can respectfully work with the neighborhoods it'll be inhabiting -- and there's sure to be some skepticism.

So, if you're curious -- or have questions or concerns -- this seems like an opportunity to find out more directly from the people leading the project.

The event is Tuesday, May 3 at 6:30 pm. It's free.

North Central
This Wednesday the Sanctuary for Independent Media is hosting a meeting about vacant buildings in Troy's North Central neighborhood. It will include discussion about plans by Habitat for Humanity, the city of Troy, the Troy Community Land Bank, TRIP, and Breathing Lights. It's at 6 pm and it's free.

Earlier on AOA:
+ More details about Breathing Lights
+ Capital Region project wins national public art challenge