Downtown Raleigh shines every holiday season with Illuminate Art Walk presented by Wake Tech! Since December 2020, Illuminate Art Walk has transformed downtown into a wonderland of art and light—fun for people of all ages.
A highlight of this year's celebration is The TUNNEL created by BIG ART, powered by Creos. The TUNNEL is an interactive, 100-foot beacon of light with towering, mirrored LED structures that reflect vibrant colors, patterns, and mesmerizing effects.
SONARC is made of 1,000 plexiglass tubes and 600 LED lights hung in a semicircle frame meant to represent open arms welcoming guests to the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.
Up-Next reimagines a 1980s television with an interactive kaleidoscopic display the viewer controls. People can turn the knobs like they're channel surfing and change the color and animation speed inside the kaleidoscopes. This hands-on approach ensures that each interaction is a personalized and memorable experience.
Wake Tech’s Torch signifies a life-changing journey, wherever you want to go, Wake Tech can help get you there. Through many partnerships they’re lighting the way for education and economic prosperity while providing our region’s top employers the workforce they need to grow and succeed.
Some of our most imaginative
adventures start with a door, a portal, or a gate. Passing through The
TUNNEL indicates the start of a journey beyond the known world into
something transformative.
One thing The TUNNEL does best is
light up a site. Its polished exterior reflects the surrounding urban
landscape, and the 16 surprising 4m (12 feet) tall cosmic structures
using over 150 LED bars provides a stunning 30m (100 feet) beacon of
light. But The TUNNEL offers even more.
You are invited to take control of
the experience! The TUNNEL utilizes a custom, interactive console that
allows you to become the “pilot”, guiding other guests through the
experience by taking control of the array. Each button controls an
aspect of the light programming, including speed, colour, fade and
patterns, allowing “pilots” to tailor a unique experience. The giant
light structure can also run autonomously for hours on end.
Floating above the Downtown Raleigh's City Plaza, the Anti-Spectacle rests, breathes, and pulses with luminous life, free to illuminate its own world as it enjoys. But beware, should any would-be watcher seek its attention and venture too close to its autonomous territory, the Anti-Spectacle will enter a state of frenzy and FREEZE its dynamic display. Wanting neither scene nor sight, the Anti-Spectacle will only behave when its space and boundaries are respected, and its human neighbors seek only appreciative curiosity from a modest distance.
Love Triangle celebrates the unique camaraderie of North Carolina's Triangle region—Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. Each city brings its own identity, creating a vibrant, diverse, and innovative community. The "love" in "Love Triangle" reflects both affection and respect among the cities, honoring their collective spirit and shared evolution.
Echoes of Elsewhere is a biomorphic lighted installation that invites viewers into a vivid, surreal ecosystem, where plant forms bloom in unexpected ways. Created as a series of four sculptures, each piece pulses with vibrant color and reflections, drawing on the dynamic textures of plant life and the fantastical qualities of imagined worlds. These illuminated forms offer a portal to "elsewhere," sparking curiosity and inspiring a playful sense of discovery. In this dreamlike space, viewers are encouraged to explore the boundaries between the real and the imagined, letting imagination, color, and light transport them beyond the familiar.
Leveraging light, technology, and imagination, the rhythms and forms of the natural world emerge in a concrete and unexpected environment. Blossoming Sky represents renewal, growth, and nature’s quiet resilience in the midst of winter.
Find Robin on Instagram at @ xo_immersive_robin_vuchnich
Threads of Light is an immersive art installation crafted entirely from recycled fashion materials and eco-friendly LEDs, merging sustainability with interactive technology. Inspired by an underwater world, the piece transports viewers into a realm where the beauty of organic shapes and fluid light patterns contrasts with the reality that it is constructed from fashion waste. The repurposed fabrics and AI-driven lighting create an ever-changing, almost otherworldly environment that feels alive and reflective, inviting viewers to rethink the potential of discarded materials. Each visit offers a unique experience as real-time lighting responses bring new textures and colors to life, encouraging a deeper reflection on the impact of fashion choices and the transformative power of art to envision a more inclusive and sustainable future.
With festive decorations adorning his wings, Pterry symbolizes the blending of past and present while inviting viewers to feel uplifted by both history and holiday cheer.
Find Pterry's other dino-friends at Moore Square and Fayetteville Street by the State Capitol!
TUNNEL OF LOVE is an exploration in large scale mark making, celebrates self-discovery, and the magic of shared moments. Each glowing figure represents the tender process of finding one’s authentic self. Faces are suspended in continuous motion—an ode to the eternal bloom within. The portraits speak of growth, vulnerability, and the glow we find when surrounded by the warmth of others. Drawing inspiration from the cozy haze of the holidays and the romantic ambiance of evening strolls, this installation aims to turn an ordinary passage into a path of transformation and reflection.
"Tree-ceratops" celebrates the fusion of prehistoric wonder and festive cheer, blending the ancient power of the triceratops with the joyful spirit of the holiday season.
Find Trish's other dino-friends at Moore Square and Exchange Plaza!
"Tree-rex" combines the awe-inspiring strength of the T. Rex with the festive spirit of the holiday season, creating a playful and unexpected blend of nature and tradition.
Find Bex's other dino-friends at Exchange Plaza and Fayetteville Street by the State Capitol!
This sculpture is based on the Sierpinski Triangle, which is the most basic mathematical representation of a fractal pattern. A fractal is a pattern that repeats endlessly, and appears the same at various scales.
Fractals exist all around us in the natural world - in seashells, tree branches, and in galaxies in outer space. When you interact with the sculpture, your own reflection becomes a part of the fractal pattern. As you zoom in and out of the sculpture, and your reflection becomes mirrored and fractured, you have the opportunity to think about how you are a part of the universe and everything within it.
