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Read the press release here.

Staten Island's Annual LUMEN Video and Art Fest Headed to Snug Harbor

By Nicholas Rizzi | June 3, 2015 2:50pm
 The sixth annual LUMEN will come to Snug Harbor for the first time on June 20.
LUMEN 2015
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LIVINGSTON — The LUMEN festival will transform the walls of a former sailor's retirement home into a canvas for light and sound art.

The sixth LUMEN festival, hosted by Staten Island Arts, will head to Snug Harbor Cultural Center for the first time on June 20, bringing more than 60 artists from around the world to show video installations, light and sound art and dance to the grounds.

"It’s a nomadic contemporary art experience that we’ve brought to four different venues over the past six years," said Monica Valenzuela, interim executive director for Staten Island Arts.

"The goal is to kind of bring these folks together, both emerging and more established folks, in one setting and make a big deal out of it and get a nice audience to experience art that is normally seen in a more intimate setting."

The event was curated by sculptor William Corwin who asked several artists he met from around the world to curate smaller pieces from people they know and show them on Staten Island.

"We really wanted to create a dialogue between Staten Island artists and international artists," said Corwin. "The aim was to bring together all these different kinds of artists."

The festival will take over the Great Lawn and several buildings at the front of Snug Harbor for the shows, with projections being displayed on the nearly 200 year old buildings.

Each year the event asks artists to show or create work based on a loose theme — usually specific to the site they've taken over, Valenzuela said.

For this year's festival, Corwin asked artists to use the historic architecture of Snug Harbor as inspiration and create works around that.

"It's almost like a sculpture for projecting video onto," Corwin said. " I was really interested in the space itself and trying to create interesting nooks and vistas to explore while they were here."

Florence Poulain, director of the performance dance group Deep Tanks Butoh, said she involved several groups to create a series of performances throughout the festival with the one she made with her dancers centered around trees and animals.

"We're using trees, the space, making them part of our stage," Poulain said. "If you walk through there maybe you'll find your spirit animal, that's part of the theme."

The festival — which drew nearly 3,000 people from across the city last year — will charge for the first time this time to help organizers afford equipment and pay artists who exhibit their work.

"The larger we get and the bigger installations we do, most of the cost is going to the technical aspect and we're paying the artists," Valenzuela said. 

"I could go to the movies and give my money to Paramount or I could go to LUMEN and help my neighbor artist pay their rent, which I think is a no brainer."

LUMEN will be on June 20 at Snug Harbor, 1000 Richmond Terrace, from 7 p.m. to midnight. Tickets are $15 for online pre-sales, $20 on the day of the event and kids under 12 are free. For 20% off tickets use the coupon code SILOVE2015.