The designers at Lightswitch created ENLIGHTEN, an immersive light show hyper-specific to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Parks in Grand Rapids, MI. This captivating blend of art, light, and nature in a winter wonderland ran from November 27, 2024, to January 4, 2025. featuring a beautiful one-mile pathway illuminated by innovative light displays, enchanting music, interactive experiences, and world-renowned sculpture. Upstaging provided production support for this site-specific experience. Live Design chats with Lightswtich principal John Featherstone about this unique project...
Live Design: How do you approach a large project such a lighting a garden like this?
John Featherstone: Meijer Gardens is a truly remarkable institution full of a world-class sculptural art collection throughout their gardens, along with a fabulous visitor’s center - it’s a remarkable facility. Our work is very site-specific. So, we took everything that already existed in the Meijer Gardens, and we interpreted that. We asked ourselves, ‘how do we make a light show that is hyper-specific to Meijer Gardens—that can only exist at Meijer Gardens?’—and we went from there. The team from Meijer left the storytelling with light entirely in our court; to design the experience for them. They of course, gave us feedback on what they liked and what they didn’t like.
LD: How do you assign the designers, who takes the lead and how large is the team?
JF: We assign our team based on our collaborative ethos, pragmatic design and experience in similar projects. Co-creative director John Featherstone has been designing remarkable garden experiences for over 15 years, and Collin Mulligan, co-creative director, was previously part of our core team for Illumination - Tree Lights at the Morton Arboretum. John and Collin took the lead, assisted by Mark Villa, Hailey Featherstone, and Connor Sullivan.
LD: What determines the choice of equipment?
JF: At Lightswitch we practice what we call ‘pragmatic design’ - finding the balance between the needs of a projects creative, financial and logistical needs. Our big philosophy with these shows, is that we very much design to a budget rather than budget to design. To do that we need to work with flexibility and creativity in collaboration with our vendor partners - in this case Upstaging, and our project director there, Ryan Breneisen. So we laid out the project based on a combination of available inventory, and creative goals. It's an iterative, multi stage process. For example, Upstaging had an extensive inventory of Chauvet ColorSTRIKE M’s available. We were hesitant to use them, because they have a wide beam angle, and we was concerned about a lot of glare coming from those units. But where they worked really effectively was pointing at a line of trees, or foliage and just bathing them in light in a really clean, evenly distributed way with super saturated colors. This was a new discovery for us.
LD: Are there main points of interest in terms of the lighting - places you direct the eye to look?
JF: Yes! The anchor and focus is Meijer Gardens world class sculpture collection, and the environments in which they are placed. Throughout the sculpture park we created a series of vignettes that are rather large in scale as a part of the overall show. It’s a rich collection, and some of these pieces are massive. For example, Aria by Alexander Liberman, is the size of a four bedroom family home. We treated the different areas like galleries inside a museum, so we worked to make sure that every experience felt like it was responding to the aesthetic of the particular work of art, and felt authentic and natural. ‘Neuron,' by artist Roxy Paine, which is similar in size to the large Aria, looks like a neuron from the brain and is bright chrome and super cool high tech, whereas Scarlatti by Mark di Suvero is a behemoth of rusted metal and an imposing piece that looms over the audience. They needed different techniques to work. In many ways this is like a concert in that as you move around the campus you get a different song with each of these works of art and the way that they are lit and curated, but still feels like a whole concert that is speaking with the voice of the Meijer Gardens.
LD: Choice of color palette?
JF: Color was anchored by the nature of each piece of course, but also took a broad defined arc of color over the length a guests visit to Meijer Gardens. Following a thoughtfully curated transition that acknowledges many color combinations. We don’t want to make this just a ‘red and green for Christmas and blue and white for Hanukkah' kind of limitation. Like all art, color is subjective, so we want to make sure everyone sees their favorite!!
LD: What is the aesthetic goal of the lighting?
JF: To be mindful of our ’site-specific’ design ethos, our goal is to honor the very special place that is Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, and the remarkable collection.Then to amplify and enhance that feeling, and immerse our guests in that visual vocabulary.
LD: For Enlighten, is there specific show lighting? Music? Use of timecode?
JF: Music and musical events play a significant role in Meijer Gardens' programs throughout the year. The outdoor amphitheater regularly hosts performances, and many of the sculptures chosen by Lightswitch for the Enlighten project were inspired by music. The lighting and interactive installations emphasize the musical theme, weaving a rich, harmonious thread that Lightswitch skillfully incorporated into their designs for Meijer Gardens’ ENLIGHTEN experience.
There’s a sculptural piece called Aria by Alexander Liberman and another titled Scarlatti by Mark di Suvero, named after the Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti, so music flows naturally through these artworks, so many of our interactive elements are centered around music. For example, we incorporated butterfly chimes that activate light displays through oversized dandelions. We chose butterflies as a nod to Meijer Gardens’ annual release of 8,000 butterflies into their tropical conservatory every April.
The chimes, repurposed from playground equipment, were enhanced by Bruce Wheaton, who designed microphone sensors. When the chimes are struck, the sensors send signals to the lighting control system, triggering the six-foot dandelions to light up. At Aria, we developed a custom keyboard, fabricated by Upstaging, which uses button interfaces also designed by Bruce Wheaton. The keyboard, made from cut metal to mirror the sculpture, allows the audience to interact directly with the artwork. When someone plays the keyboard, they essentially turn the sculpture into an instrument, creating both light displays and single musical notes. It’s a polyphonic station, enabling visitors to compose music by combining different buttons. This interactive experience encourages playful exploration, tying together light, music, and the spirit of the piece, Aria.
LD: What makes this a successful design project and what were the challenges along the way.
JF: Featherstone, Mulligan, and the entire Lightswitch team are thrilled with the warm reception guests have given to Enlighten at Meijer Gardens. We approach all of our projects with a deep sense of honor and privilege. Institutions like Meijer Gardens trust Lightswitch to serve as their brand ambassadors, delivering a message to the community that reflects their brand’s essence. When they asked us to create a show celebrating their role as a place where art, nature, and the human experience intersect, we took that responsibility seriously. While this project involved lights, it was about much more than that—it was about crafting a unique, differentiated human experience. We often talk about creating ‘emotional souvenirs,’ and we don’t take that lightly. A great deal of creative effort and thought went into making these moments truly memorable.
The creative process is often romanticized as a seamless flow of inspiration and brilliance, but in reality, it’s a journey fraught with challenges that test resilience, patience, and ingenuity. At its core, creativity demands venturing into the unknown, a process that can be as daunting as it is rewarding.
One of the primary challenges is the fear of failure. Creativity involves taking risks, pushing boundaries, and exploring uncharted territory, which often comes with the possibility of making mistakes. This fear can stifle innovation, making it difficult to move forward. Overcoming this requires a shift in mindset—seeing failure not as an endpoint but as a stepping stone toward growth and discovery.
Balancing originality with practicality was another challenge. Creative ideas must often align with constraints such as budgets, timelines, or audience expectations. This tension between artistic vision and real-world limitations can feel like a compromise, but it also pushes us at Lightswitch to think more resourcefully, leading to innovative solutions that might not have emerged otherwise.
The iterative nature of the creative process can also be a source of frustration. Rarely is the first attempt perfect. Refining and revising ideas requires persistence and the ability to embrace feedback, even when it’s critical. Learning to detach personal ego from the work is key to navigating this phase effectively.
Finally, the emotional toll of the creative process cannot be overlooked. Pouring one’s heart and soul into a project can be exhausting, and the vulnerability of sharing that work with others adds another layer of pressure. Cultivating self-compassion and a supportive environment can help mitigate these emotional challenges and Lightswitch, Upstaging and Meijer Gardens teams all worked together to build a safe, nurturing and supportive environment for all.
We were tasked with lighting pieces by world-renowned sculptors, and we hold ourselves to the highest standards as designers. The open-endedness of the directive—‘make this beautiful’—challenged us to deliver something we’re truly proud of.
This was a full Lightswitch team endeavor. Our collective pragmatic design experience comes together under our ‘it takes a village’ design philosophy to ensure we deliver the best possible product. When a client like Meijer Gardens entrusts us with their vision and says, ‘We’re telling you who we are, now go create something amazing to represent us,’ it’s a tremendous honor and responsibility. Fortunately, it seems we delivered beyond expectations, as the reviews have been fantastic.