NEW BRIGHTON — The LUMEN festival returns next month to the massive Staten Island salt depot that holds most of the city's de-icing equipment.
The event, now in its seventh year, transforms the waterfront spot into an art gallery.
The festival which is hosted by Staten Island Arts will bring 34 pieces of light, sound, performance and installation art focused on the theme "change" to the Atlantic Salt Company in June, with some using the massive salt depots as their canvas.
"Something that became this thread through a lot of pieces was documenting change," said Monica Valenzuela, deputy director for Staten Island Arts and curator of this year's festival.
"Everything from change of movement to the change of the environment or a neighborhood on a very local level, to global change."
After working as the project manager for the event for five years, Valenzuela said she wanted to try her hand at curating this festival instead of bringing somebody else in.
She said she focused on making sure this year has a strong contingency of Staten Island artists, especially up-and-coming ones who might not have had many opportunities to show their work before.
"I'm really proud to say this year more than half of the festival is Staten Islanders," she said.
"I really wanted to work with some artists that are more emerging, they might not have the experience or the portfolio or documentation of their work, but are doing really exciting things."
The festival will also have more performance and interactive art than previous years, such as Brooklyn artist's Michael Keff's piece "Things!"
Keff will project a large collage of random objects like fruit and birds that viewers can control with a foot switch installed in front of it.
"The idea is that there's no exact meaning to it all," Keff said.
"It kind of puts it on the viewer. It looks at the art of play and how people connect to objects."
This year's event will also add a market place organized by Flagship Brewery for local artists to sell their wares at the event, Valenzuela said.
LUMEN will be on June 25 at the Atlantic Salt Company, 561 Richmond Terrace, from 7 p.m. to midnight. Tickets can be bought online for $5 per person and $15 for groups, until June 15. At the door tickets are $10 per person and $20 for groups who enter together.
