The northern lights are coming to Illinois this winter.
Running Nov. 11 to Jan. 2, The Morton Arboretum’s “Illumination” lights display will feature its largest exhibit yet: a canopy depicting the aurora borealis.
‘Most ambitious’ northern lights-inspired installation
“What we wanted to do was create a piece that was part lighting display, part art installation, that welcomed the notion of the northern lights into Illumination as part of the experience,” said John Featherstone, a lighting designer at Lighswitch and the creative director for Illumination. “We also wanted to create something with scale and gravitas and dimension because the arboretum’s so big, 1,700 acres. So when we paint here, we have to paint with a very big brush.”
The northern lights display stretches more than 400 feet down Ginkgo Way at The Morton Arboretum.
“This is definitely one of the most ambitious to date,” said Amy Scott, head of exhibitions at The Morton Arboretum. “Everything that we do here is really based on our landscape, our collections, our vistas, and we really pay a lot of attention to individual areas and how we can bring those areas to life with [a] focus on trees and bringing those to life in the winter when most people are maybe not spending so much time paying attention to them.”
Years of work
Scott said the northern lights exhibit required years of dedicated work.
“This has probably been about two years that we’ve been working on this feature itself, and we work throughout all the departments of the organization to work through all of the logistics and working with our partners,” Scott said.
“It really is a massive undertaking, creating something of this scale, not only from an art standpoint but also from a science and technology standpoint, because it’s got to be engineered. You know, we’re here on a beautiful autumnal September evening, but the weather is going to be very different in November and December. So we have to make sure that what we do is beautiful, breathtaking, unique, but also safe,” Featherstone added.
Additional Illumination experiences
Along with the northern lights-inspired canopy, Illumination will feature a landscape of large glowing orbs and a tunnel of bright, moving chrome spheres, among the other attractions on the one-mile path.
For an additional cost, guests can also visit the new Pine Whistle Railroad experience. The indoor model train stretches across nearly 1,000 feet of track, featuring fairy and gnome houses with large-scale mushrooms to create a miniature “fantasy woodland” in the Firefly Pavilion.
The Pine Whistle Railroad will be open to daytime arboretum visitors and Illumination guests with the add-on ticket. After Illumination ends on January 2, the daytime experience will continue through February 13.
Creating space to slow down
Featherstone said Illumination gives guests a chance to pause during the holiday season.
“It’s a busy, hectic time of year. Parents are stressed, kids are stressed, grandma and grandpa are stressed. Everybody’s going a million miles an hour. But what we hope we create here is an opportunity to just breathe and just be still and be calm,” Featherstone said.
The shifting aurora borealis canvas is the last stop on the Illumination walking path.
“We hope when people are here, they linger a bit. They look at different patterns of color and light. They look at the way the shadows and reflections of the trees work with the light and with the material, and think about what it means to have this experience at this intersection of nature and light and art at the holiday season,” Featherstone said.
Illumination tickets
Tickets for Illumination will be available for The Morton Arboretum members starting October 1 at 9 a.m. They’ll be available to the public beginning at 9 a.m. on October 15.
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