River Lights to be unveiled at SB150 ceremony today

Visitors to downtown in recent weeks may have noticed the series of towers that now rise above the river on opposite sides of the dam, or the high-tech lights fastened to the underside of the Jefferson Boulevard Bridge.

Both are part of River Lights, an interactive light sculpture that the city intends to unveil Friday as part of the opening ceremony for South Bend 150, the city’s three-day birthday celebration.

The sculpture will remain after the celebration ends to serve as a lasting reminder of this particular moment in the city’s history, not unlike the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Unisphere in New York, but on a smaller scale.

The one-of-a-kind piece will light not only the dam, but the Jefferson Boulevard Bridge and the Mark di Suvero sculpture “Keepers of the Fire.”

Designed by Rob Shakespeare of Shakespeare Lighting Design, the $750,000 sculpture, financed in large part by donations from corporations and individuals, consists of five elements:

• A series of five, 24-foot light towers on the east side of the river, near the headwaters of the East Race at Seitz Park.

• A series of three, 30-foot light towers on the west side of the river, at the southern tip of Island Park, behind Century Center.

• A light “crescent” on the east side of the river, downstream from the dam at the northern edge of the old Wharf site.

• Theatrical-style lighting under the arches and on the columns of the Jefferson Boulevard bridge, upstream from the dam.

• Uplights below the kinetic di Suvero sculpture, in the in the middle of the river above the dam.

Based on a dynamic design, different elements of the sculpture will respond to motion or touch, casting light from island-to-island across the dam.

Commissioned by Downtown South Bend Inc., the piece is intended to serve as both an attraction and a piece of art, enhancing the atmosphere along the riverfront downtown.

“That’s kind been the motivation all along,” Aaron Perri, executive director of DTSB, has said. “It’s going to have dynamic or theatrical elements that are going to kind of dance along the riverfront there.”

Perri has described the sculpture as a “breathing piece of art that changes with the seasons” and “with motion activation and how people approach it.”

“And their imagination will continue to create light effects every night,” he has said.

It’s also a unifying piece, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has said.

“It visually joins both sides of the river, which is important,” Buttigieg said. “I also think it’s just going to be an appealing feature that invites people to pause downtown.

“Part of the goal is to bring people to downtown, not just through downtown … and this invites people to do just that,” the mayor said.

In partnership with a number of local stakeholders, DTSB started laying the groundwork for the project in 2012.

Under Shakespeare’s watch, installation of the piece has proceeded swiftly over the past three months with help from dozens of volunteers, including members of the local electrical union.

Perri said it’s “exhilarating” to see everything finally come together.

“Many people have had many visions for this site for a long time, a lot of them involving light, so it’s really exciting to see (the project) in its final phase,” he said recently.

The sculpture is informed by the natural landscape of the river, Shakespeare has said, as well as the history of the site, which first attracted settlers because of its capacity for power generation.

“It’s a gorgeous combination of nature flowing through here and then what the community over its history has built around it, to harness it and to make it more visually appealing,” Shakespeare said of the setting. “And so that became the core of the idea of, well, let’s light the water.”

“This is one of those things that is going to be iconic for South Bend,” Perri has said. “The river is such an important part of our city’s history … so to be able to highlight the river in this fashion is pretty special.”

In terms of its interactive properties, “River Lights” expands upon “Light Totem,” another of Shakespeare’s sculptures, which sits outside the Indiana University Art Museum in Bloomington.

Like “River Lights,” “Light Totem” also responds to motion, but in a less sophisticated way.

Shakespeare also has lit the Lilly House at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the exhibition spaces at the IU Museum of Art and the Kap Shui Mun and Tsing Ma bridges in Hong Kong.

Unlike those projects, River Lights has been a collaborative effort in terms of both planning and fundraising, Shakespeare has said, involving a diverse cross-section of the community.

“It would have been nice to say there’s one major donor and we can hire all these contractors and get it all taken care of,” Perri has said. “But I think it means a lot more … that this is truly a project that’s been envisioned and made possible by the community.”