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In autumn 2026, Light Up The North (LUTN) will launch ILLUMINE 2, an ambitious light art commissioning opportunity for Black and POC artists. This is a positive action that recognises and responds to the lack of artist diversity at festivals of light art.
The opportunity is to create a new, striking mid/large-scale light art installation that will tour to multiple light art festivals of LUTN members.
The Application Deadline: Friday, September 11 (5pm)
LUTN member festivals will work together to commission an artist or collective to develop a new light artwork for the 2027/8 season. The artwork would travel to a number of different festivals in the network between October 2027 and February 2028. ILLUMINE is for Black and POC artists with an established professional practice and a recognised, successful portfolio of work. It is an opportunity for an artist to realise a work at scale. If an artist has never worked with light before, LUTN will budget for technical specialists and a creative producer to help realise the work. The ILLUMINE programme aims to address the lack of diversity of artists within the light art sector to ensure that light festivals are more representative of the populations they serve.
The ILLUMINE commissioning opportunity includes:
Development phase: October 26 – March 27
Concept sign off: April 27
Prototyping and production: May / June – Sept 27
Installation: Oct 27- Feb 28
Delivery: The ILLUMINE programme will culminate in a new light artwork to be exhibited at up to 6 of our member festivals between October 2027 and February 2028.
Proposals:
The final artwork will need to be:
The successful ILLUMINE artist will also need to:
Finance:
The artist (or collective) will receive a bursary of up to £8,000 (exclusive of VAT) to research, develop and produce a proposal for an achievable new work.
This will be paid in three parts – £4,000 at the start of the research phase, £1,000 on presentation of the final proposal and £3,000 on delivery of the work at the first festival. We can be flexible with the schedule of these payments should it be necessary.
Reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence costs will be covered separately by LUTN during this phase.
Artists will also receive a production/creative budget up to a maximum of £70,000 (exclusive of VAT) to deliver the new work. The production budget includes all materials and technical, installation and operational costs.
Reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence costs at the delivery stage will be covered separately by LUTN. Transport of the artwork will be covered by the participating member LUTN festivals.
If needed, commissioned artists can apply for match funding from other sources.
Eligibility
To be eligible to apply to the ILLUMINE open call you must
The programme is intended to support and expand artists’ practice in scale and technologies of production, therefore applicants who haven’t already worked with light-based artforms are welcome to apply. Equally, unsuccessful applicants to the previous Illumine programme are welcome to apply again.
If you would like to be considered for this opportunity, please submit your application by date time according to the below instructions:
We want to make things as simple as possible and are aware that applications can be both unnecessarily complex and time consuming for artists.
To submit: Please send a very short CV, examples of your work and covering letter (or video or audio equivalent), outlining your interest, your proposed idea, indicative budget and relevant artistic skills and experience. We actively encourage applications from artists whose enthusiasm for taking part may exceed their current experience in light art.
Please ensure your covering, proposal letter is no longer than 2-3 sides of A4. Please feel free to attach images which you feel will be relevant to your outline proposal.
All applications will be treated in confidence.
If you prefer to upload video responses to your application, we advise that you keep these brief. As a guide, videos should be no longer than 5 minutes each
All applicants must complete our Equal Opportunities Monitoring form. The data is anonymised and will be held separately from applications. The data will be used for equal opportunities monitoring purposes only.
There is no application fee.
We are committed to ensuring our opportunities are open for people who experience barriers to inclusion. We recognise that you might need additional support to participate in the application and/or interview, whether that is technical equipment, access support or adjustments to the process. If you require any support or adjustments, please email us:
illumine@lightupthenorth.com
LUTN is offering a webinar on Monday, August 17 at 6pm. This will be an opportunity to hear more details about the ILLUMINE opportunity, and have your questions answered before finalising your application. To participate please email your details to: illumine@lightupthenorth.com
Applications will be assessed by a panel of LUTN partners.
We aim to ensure the selected commissions will be high-quality work and afford the best experience for artists, audience members and locations. A panel of LUTN partners involved with curating ILLUMINE, plus global majority independent advisors, will assess all applications based on 5 areas:
Things to consider:
By applying to be a ILLUMINE artist you agree:
What can you create?
We are specifically looking for artists with ambitious, captivating ideas. Proposals must be based on the creative use of light, possibly utilising digital technology. The artwork needs to be weather-proof, able to withstand strong winds, be structurally sound (if applicable) and must be suitable for presenting outdoors at our varied locations and timescales. We are interested in work which can cater for large audiences, especially projects with the potential for engagement in either the making or operation of the piece, and activities or events which are accessible to families.
The locations of the festivals are also varied with urban, parkland, industrial and city settings. You should consider the ideal type of location for your artwork.
Our festival activities take place in the evenings during late autumn/winter months. You will also need to consider a realistic install / de-rig schedule.
Each festival will provide standard infrastructure support for your arriving artwork; however, all artists fees and artwork production costs must be factored into your commission award.