Boston’s library lit up by Celebration of Lights

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2015/12/17/bostons-library-lit-up-by-celebration-of-lights/

BOSTON – Spectators swarmed over Copley Square huddled under umbrellas to watch fireworks exploding in blue, purple and pink along with flickering candles against a royal blue-and-gold façade of the historic Boston Public Library Thursday as a city-sponsored holiday light celebration stopped commuters in their tracks.

“I tell you folks, I was so impressed,” said Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat who filled in as master of ceremonies for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. The mayor was delayed at an earlier event, officials said.

The display of three-dimensional imagery came from the talents of artist Anthony Bastic of AGB Events and was produced with the help of LuminARTZ, a nonprofit organization in Gloucester that celebrates the histories of cities and towns through public art. This year the Dartmouth Street side of the library provides the canvass for the 8-minute display, which will run from 5 p.m. through 10 p.m.  through Sunday, accompanied by holiday music.

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Working in partnership with ArtsBoston, the city brought a light show of this type to the U.S. for the first time. Bastic and his team of co-creators is best known for the Vivid Sydney Light Walk and the Lights of Christmas projections in Sydney, Australia.

“This is more of a storytelling experience and projectors is what makes it intensely beautiful,” said Lyn LaFontaine Burke, a LuminARTZ co-founder. “It’s very unique that they use these projectors, live 3-D animation on the side of the building.”

Funded by LuminARTZ co-founder Stacey B. Maclay, the show was toned down a bit in hopes of gaining more sponsorship for next year’s holiday display. Maclay would like to help make the event a tradition in the city as a family-friendly event that brings public art to tourists, Bostonians and commuters alike as they pass through the bustling Back Bay center. And each year it would be different.

It’s more than “just another light show,” Burke said. “It’s live entertainment.”

How many presents are you buying your kids this year?

1-4

5-10

11-15

16+

Nothing but a lump of coal

We don’t give gifts

I don’t have kids