Warming up for the @flyingfoxwoman@loganartgallery Night Walk April 22 — meet the incredible Leni Schwendinger! 🌙
@leni_light is a hybrid artist fusing ART + URBAN DESIGN + LIGHT — optimising night-time experiences for safety, beauty and sustainability. Truly a sister of the light and dark, she celebrates the exquisiteness of the nocturnal city and the people who inhabit it after dark. 🦇
This clip is from Leni’s Urban Braids: Illuminating Newkirk Plaza — an innovative community co-designed lighting project where residents braided strings of light and installed the design themselves. The result? A space that is loved, created and cared for by the community. ✨
Leni’s company Light Projects has delivered extraordinary international works including the Sixth Street Viaduct LA, 2nd Ave Subway NYC and Zaryadye Park Moscow. She also received a Light Justice Award for Urban Braids — recognising exceptional lighting design that positively impacts underserved communities. 📸➡️
Join @becmacstudio@wyethstephanie & @flyingfoxwoman for a Night Walk starting @loganartgallery April 22, 5:30pm — register via link in bio!
Register to be part of this walk, project, movement, idea, statement, chance to meet new people, have fun & see the night with fresh eyes!!!
Supported by @logancity.council@loganartgallery@artsqueensland@artisanqld@uniofqld@queenslandwalks@zontaclubbrisbane
Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC) is proud to announce a special community celebration on Monday, December 16, at 4:00 PM, recognizing Urban Braids: a public light-installation project that has transformed Newkirk Plaza since 2024, as a Light Justice Now winner!
Funded through a 2024 grant from the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS), this vibrant installation was created to bring greater visibility, safety, and ambiance to Newkirk Plaza—supporting both merchants and the thousands of commuters who pass through daily.
We are honored to welcome Calvin T. Brown, Deputy Commissioner for the Neighborhood Development Division at NYC SBS, who will join us for the official Light Justice Award unveiling. The event will also feature the artist and designer of the project, Leni Schwendinger and her team, of Leni Schwendinger Light Projects, along with the dedicated FDC staff and community volunteers who helped bring this initiative to life.
Immediately Following: Newkirk Plaza Lights Celebration – 4:30 PM! Following the unveiling, we invite the entire community to stay for our annual Newkirk Plaza Lights celebration. This year, this event will be held in honor of the Matriarch, Vincenza LoDuca, of Newkirk Plaza's beloved Pizza shop, Lo Duca Pizza, who we lost this past October. This event will feature:
Christmas tree and Menorah lighting
Photos and gift giveaway with Santa (toys available while supplies last)
Holiday songs and festivities
Local restaurant food samples
One of most inspirational experiences on my @churchill_trust journey has been spending time with the incredible @leni_light a hybrid fusing ART + URBAN DESIGN WITH LIGHT optimizing night-time experiences, resulting in safety, beauty, and sustainability.
Leni really feels like a sister of the light & dark, she celebrates the exquisiteness of the night-time palate & loves the night urban dwellers & the city spaces they inhabit during the after-dark hours.
She also loves ice in her Rose a true sign of a kindred spirit!
Leni invited us to her favourite restaurant @barsixrestaurant where we shared our passion for the night & all its magic & opportunity for creativity and culture.
We then joined her & Chris Bocchiaro her Project Manager (Lighting Specialist experienced in architectural and entertainment systems) at their project “Urban Braids: Illuminating Newkirk Plaza”, an innovative lighting project designed to enhance the safety and ambiance of Newkirk Plaza. This project aimed to boost local small businesses & foster community engagement by creating a vibrant, well-lit environment for shopping, strolling, and commuting.
Leni’s company Light Project’s has worked on many incredible international works such as the Sixth Street Viaduct is one of America’s most famous and iconic bridges in LA, 2nd Ave Subway NYC and Zaryadye Park Moscow, Russia. Swipe ➡️
But this project was close to her heart as it was a new lighting approach employing community engagement for innovative string lighting where the community were involved in the codesign of the work and then participated in the braiding of the strings and the installation of the design. Chris brought his theatrical expertise and lighting design installation for the production side of the project & now it’s a space that is loved, created and looked after by the community. 📸➡️
Leni also received a Light Justice Award for this project for exceptional achievement in lighting design that positively benefits and measurably impacts the visual environment for an underserved, marginalized community and/or its occupants.
Stay tuned for the video!
Thanks @silveypatrick@wowaustralia_
#lighting #placemaking
June 3 6-8:00 Live in-person for #NewYorkers. Consider attending this fascinating presentation - a mix of the practical and emotional — science, human connection, and an ecological/sustainable ending. There is a light component too.
@DeathLab will explain all. I find their research joyous.
I will open with a short presentation ““Are You Afraid of the Dark, A Light Justice Approach” on how my community engagement art practice relates to the DeathLab concepts.
Open discussion on rethinking the roles of mortuary and lighting infrastructures and their agency to illuminate and strengthen our civic life and social bonds will follow the presentations.
PS. this is your chance to visit the famed @Westbeth Artist Community historic site by the Hudson River.
Obsessed with Light is OUT! Loie Fuller is IN. Look for showings near you. For now, NYC at Quad Cinema. Ballets fantastiques.
She and her lover Gab were essential to the underground #nightlife scene in turn of the century Paris
