The Light Call
The annual call for light installations, plus the community lantern build. What you can propose, what's provided, and where to send it.
Every autumn the City and the Silvermere Lakelight Society put out a Light Call, an open invitation to propose illuminated installations for the winter festival. Selected works are commissioned, supported, and installed along Silver Lake for the season, seen by everyone who walks the promenade through the dark months. You don’t have to be a light artist to take part: scroll down for the community lantern build.
Who can propose
The Light Call is open to local artists, schools, community groups, and invited light artists. You don’t need a fine-art background, a class, a maker collective, or a neighbourhood group can propose a piece. The call typically opens in early autumn for that winter’s festival; exact dates are posted with each call.
What you can propose
Lakelight is a festival of light, so installations work in light: paper-and-wire lanterns, glowing light forms, projection art on building facades, or fire-and-ice pieces. Works must hold up outdoors through a mountain winter, snow, freeze-thaw, wind off the lake, and read well at night and in reflection. Pieces are sited along the promenade, at The Narrows, on the Old Mill Footbridge, or on downtown facades.
What the festival provides
Commission
Selected proposals receive a commission to make and mount the work. Amounts are published with each year's Light Call.
Power & siting
The Society coordinates the site, safe power or solar/battery supply, and helps with install and takedown along the route.
A lit audience
Your work is seen by every resident and off-season visitor who walks Silver Lake through the festival, doubled in the reflection.
The Lantern Trail
Standout pieces may be invited to join the permanent year-round Lantern Trail along the promenade.
How selection works
A small curatorial panel reviews proposals each year, weighing how the piece fits its site, whether it can survive the winter, and how it balances against the rest of the route, lanterns, projections, light forms, and fire-and-ice across the lake. The cohort is modest, so not every proposal can be commissioned in a given year. A pass is not a verdict on the idea; many makers are encouraged to refine and propose again.
The community lantern build
Not proposing an installation? You can still light up the lake. In the days before the festival, the Society runs a weekend community lantern build, drop-in, all ages, free, where residents make their own paper-and-wire lanterns. Carry yours in the community lantern parade across the Old Mill Footbridge on the festival’s signature night. Materials and guidance are provided; just bring yourself. Dates are posted with each year’s program.
How to submit
Proposals are managed through the official Lakelight website. Full guidelines, the current commission, technical and safety requirements, and the next deadline are posted there.