1708 Gallery’s inlight Richmond will occur from 7PM to midnight this Friday, September 5th. The 100 through 400 blocks of West Broad Street will be closed to cars and will serve as a site specific arena for art. Various locations within these block have been identified as primary and secondary sites with walls, parking lots, storefronts, doorways and median strips as possible platforms for artistic engagement. This is one not to be missed…

From the inlight Richmond press materials:

More than 40 artists have been selected to participate in the first annual InLight Richmond event on September 5, 2008. This juried, light inspired art exhibition and event will take place from sun-down to midnight between the 100 and 400 blocks of Broad Street downtown, and is open to the public. The response to this event has been broad and deep with many international and regional artists participating.

London based architect Peter Culley has teamed up with Eleni Savvidou, a lighting designer with L’Observatoire International in New York. Their piece entitled “Light House” is a life-size architectural 3D “light drawing,” created in real space, which spectators can freely enter and explore. Culley is an associate director at Rick Mather Architects, and serves as the Project Director for the transformative expansion of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Bringing international perspective to the celebration are Sally Rees and Lena Stuart, who have collaborated on a work in photography and sound. Although from Montreal and Tasmania respectively, the two have created a single piece through their communication process, resembling a contemporary version of the “exquisite corpse” method of the 1920 Surrealists. The outcome, “Hiatus,” is a series of photographic pairs which will be projected onto an outdoor wall and accompanied by soundworks created by Jean-Yves Thériault and Matt Warren.

Among the local artist groups participating, Diana Cavanaugh and Worn Gallery bring us “Brilliant Beacons.” Representatives of the gallery will actually wear miniature illuminated installations as they roam the area, spending the evening as both spectators and spectacles. Cavanaugh is a recipient of a 2008 VMFA Undergraduate Fellowship in Sculpture.

Other InLight contributing artists include Miriam Ewers, Travis Fullerton, Bruce Hornstein, Christopher Wiedeman, David Grainger, Justin Lincoln, Henry Gwiazda, Michael Filimowicz, Janpim Wolf, Amie Oliver, Gilberto Martinez, Megumi Akiyoshi, Damian Yanessa, Tatiana Ginsberg, Amy Glengary Yang, Sabrina Cordovana, Arielle Angel, Clay McGlamory, Scott Kyle, Jessica Bauserman, Jackie Mancini, Matt Greer, Linda Sheridan-Nay, Craig Pleasants, John Blatter, Solar Sculptors United Now, Leah Jacobson, Manica Zander, Robbie Kinter, Thea Duskin, Megan Vernon, Slash Coleman, Anne Savage, the Art Cheerleaders and Michael Lease. A longtime tradition of 1708, Wearable Art, has been incorporated into this event as Wearable InLight, featuring light-inspired fashion.

Powered by 1708 Gallery in conjunction with its 30th anniversary, InLight Richmond is an art-infused, light-inspired art exhibition and event and modeled after similar international efforts such as Nuit Blanche in Paris, Rome, and Toronto and Luci d’Artista in Turin, Italy. Facades, walls, balconies, rooftops, doorways, parking lots, and median strip have been identified as sites for art installations and performances, providing a unique event for Richmond and giving the city the opportunity to encourage lively dialogue about contemporary art throughout the Central Virginia region and across the globe.