With the creation of Illumination, Lightswitch greatly advanced the market for non-traditional holiday light displays and created a whole new kind of experience.
You know when you have one of those creative ideas you just can’t shake? We do – in fact, we have lots of them! One concept we long pondered was a “pivot” in how the holidays could be celebrated in parks and gardens. What if rather than just string up twinkle lights, we could immerse the audience in distinctive environments, rich with visual depth? What if rather than being used as just armatures to be wrapped in lights, we could celebrate trees and humanity’s relationship with nature in the winter? What if we could welcome everyone, no matter how they celebrate the holidays?
In 2010, we approached the acclaimed and celebrated Morton Arboretum to see if they were interested in partnering with us to create something like this. To our delight, they were! So began two years of design development for a project that continues to surprise and delight hundreds of thousands of guests each year. The money raised supports the Morton Arboretum's year-round mission to be the Champion of Trees.
We did what we always do: we thought big and thought different! We combined the Morton Arboretum's amazing grounds with state-of-the-art theatrical lighting techniques and curated a series of attractions that combined to create a never-before-seen experience. For over a decade, Illumination has gone from a novelty to an institution and tradition. Couples have come on their first date, gotten engaged at Illumination, and returned with their children. Friends and families now consider Illumination an essential part of their Chicagoland holiday celebrations, and guests even travel from as far away as the UK and Japan to enjoy this show year after year.
Even during the darkest and most difficult days of the COVID pandemic in 2020, we kept Illumination open by pivoting to a safe driving experience, bringing much-needed relief and fun to stressed families in desperate need of a little light. Since then, we have expanded to a late-night “after-hours” experience called Electric Illumination, which features curated music from genres such as EDM, Ibiza disco, Trance, and a fun 80’s flashback night.
Constantly changing and evolving, Illumination is the standard by which other immersive garden experiences are judged and has led to numerous other Lightswitch-designed projects around the country.
Inclusion is a core value at Lightswitch – not just for our team members and clients, but also for our audiences. In conceiving Illumination more than ten years ago, Lightswitch created a new and inclusive kind of holiday celebration, where everyone was welcomed, honored, and valued. We greatly advanced the market for non-traditional holiday light displays and created a whole new kind of experience.
All of our holiday lights projects are custom-designed and bespoke for each of the gardens with which we work, and each is just as distinctive and unique as those institutions. By focusing on the geography, local culture, and audience for each project, we create scaled, financially successful immersive light experiences that visitors won’t soon forget.
