Preview: Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s stunning holiday Lightscape returns this month

By Anna Rahmanan

Among the many events that make Brooklyn feel so special during the holidays each year is the relative newcomer Lightscape at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a visually stunning show of over a million lights illuminating a milelong trail defined by beautiful vegetation.

This year’s dazzling extravaganza, the third installment of the franchise, is set to debut on November 17 and run through January 1, 2024. It will feature a total of 18 installations by a variety of international light artists and design collectives that build upon the garden’s lush botanical landscapes and unique architectural details.

Sea of Light by ITHACA Studio (Photo by Kat Gollock)

“It’s just a really great setting to view light art in,” says Katie Pidgeon, the director of public programs at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “We work hard with gardeners and the horticulture team to showcase the trees, the plants and the art: It’s about lighting up our gorgeous collection to see how expansive it is.”

Among this year’s presented works will be “Dancing Water Colors,” a show by the Japanese fountain that kicks off the exhibit with a bang, and “Submergence,” an interactive experience by U.K. collaborative Squidsoup featuring thousands of individual points of dangling lights. Multidisciplinary design and fabrication studio Studio Vertigo has also been tapped to install a 24-foot-high illuminated Moravian star by the trail as part of a project called “Supernova.”

But it’s “Trinity” by creative studio Novak that most readily banks on the history of the space that it will occupy. Featuring dozens of botanical illustrations from the garden’s own archives, the exhibit brings them all to life as 22-foot-high projections on three separate 100-year-old horse chestnut trees: a delightful use of the local flora.

“What we really like to do each year is tie it all back to the Garden,” explains Pidgeon. “The [Novak] team worked with our librarian, looking through images from our archives to use as inspiration.”

In addition to the opportunity to showcase their creations to an audience made up mostly of, according to Pidgeon, New Yorkers looking for exciting, outdoor things to do during colder months, all participating artists get paid for their projects.

And these days, it’s not just New Yorkers who get to enjoy Lightscape: The production also been put on in the United Kingdom and in Chicago, with plans to expand to new markets, including Fort Worth, Los Angeles, San Antonio and San Diego.

Submergence by Squidsoup (Photo by Richard Haughton)

How it all comes together
To select the artists and artworks, the Garden taps Culture Creative, a management and communications agency for designers and brands that goes on a hunt to find the ideal creators to spotlight in the space each year.

Given the nature of the light show and the popularity of immersive experiences, part of that selection process undeniably relies on the power of social media. Lightscape, after all, lives in the age of TikTok and is itself a deliberately Instagrammable offering.

“We do want to create something that people want to photograph and also take pictures of themselves in,” notes Pidgeon. “There are always two or three installations in particular that invoke that type of excitement.”

Take the “Winter Cathedral,” for example, which is returning for the third time this fall. The 80-foot installation is, quite literally, an Instagram-perfect tunnel of lights inspired by arched church windows that visitors flock to with their phones in hand when visiting the show.

And that’s part of the point: Any social media buzz around Lightscape is also free publicity for the project — a fact that isn’t lost on the staff.

“Our No. 1 marketer is word of mouth in Brooklyn specifically,” concedes Pidgeon. “If people are having a good time and then posting about it and their friends will then come, that’s great. We encourage that type of posting.”

But nudging visitors to broadcast their experience isn’t the organizers’ only intent. In fact, certain installations go in the entirely opposite direction and point to the power of privacy and reflection.

“Immersive experiences are one of those hot-button features when it comes to events now,” acknowledges Pidgeon. “What we like to do is to actually bring you in but also give you a moment to reflect, and then do that all over again. So you might enjoy a walk through the garden but also immerse yourself in a light tunnel and then look up at a static installation in the trees a bit later. It’s nice to have a variety of experiences.”

Food-wise, pop-up dining areas will once again offer up hot toddies, hot buttered rum, coffee and more to wash down homemade donuts, s’mores in a jar and various soups and sandwiches.

Part of that variety also includes the soundscape of Lightscape. In addition to tracks by artists like Taylor Swift and Elton John, visitors will get to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with music by the likes of Mos Def, MC Lyte and Digable Planets, all the while perusing the area.

This year’s hip-hop music area is curated by local artist Sherwin Banfield, who actually exhibited his own installation celebrating Brooklyn’s connection with the genre earlier this summer at the Garden with “Botanical Boombox: Brooklyn Branch,” a solar-paneled tree whose fruits represented artists that, according to a press release, “blossomed out of Brooklyn neighborhoods.”

“Brooklyn feels like a small town, in a way,” says Pidgeon. “It feels really festive to bring your friends and family here and have that experience together with out-of-towners. The holidays in Brooklyn are just special.”