From March 28 to April 3, Light City Baltimore will premiere as the first large-scale light festival in the United States and will celebrate Baltimore’s status as a hub of creativity and innovation. Light City’s centerpiece will be a 1.5-mile art walk around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, showcasing light displays, interactive installations, and projections – accompanied by music and dance performances at two stages. Four LightCityU conferences will generate an ecosystem of ideas and learning during the day. 

Creative works by UMBC alumni and faculty will have a strong presence at Light City – and UMBC is a founding sponsor of LightCityU: Powering Social Change, the daytime conferences that will explore social innovation, health innovation, sustainability innovation, and creative innovation. UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, will deliver keynote remarks at the social innovation conference on March 29. At night, while the city is lit up by the festival, UMBC will host a Black and Gold Lounge inside the Columbus Center where alumni and friends of the university can warm up with a hot beverage and reconnect with other members of the UMBC community.

Several members of the UMBC community will be showing work at Light City, including Symmes Gardner, director of UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, who will exhibit a video installation titled “1,001 Lux;" UMBC associate professors of visual arts Kelley Bell, M.F.A. ’06, imaging and digital arts, and Corrie Parks, who will display a new work, “Project Aquaculture,” at the Columbus Center; and Colette Searls, chair of UMBC’s theatre department, who will be exhibiting a work that combines animation, live theater, and puppetry featuring a crab named Kendra. Mina Cheon, M.F.A. '02, imaging and digital arts, will exhibit an installation of light sculptures called Diamonds Light Baltimore,  Adam Trice '04, English, will perform with the band Red Sammy, and staff member Delana Gregg M.A. '04, ISD, will perform with the group Fluid Movement.

A special half-price ticket rate for UMBC faculty and student to attend the LightCityU conferences is available now through 3/27 = $99. Use promo code UMBCED2016, but hurry - limited tickets remain! Register at lightcity.org/LCU/

The UMBC receptions and art, installation, music and performance events are free and open to the public.

Stop by the UMBC Black and Gold Lounge in the Columbus Center (get directions) for a hot beverage and free glow-in-the-dark UMBC swag while you're passing through Baltimore's inaugural celebration of light and ideas. The lighting begins downtown at 7:00 PM, so we hope you'll plan to arrive around then! Plus, check out these special receptions we’ve planned for alumni groups:

• March 28 – Visual and Performing Arts Alumni Reception at the Columbus Center
• March 30 – IT & Engineering Alumni Happy Hour at Betamore
• March 31 – Honors College Alumni Reception

Within the Black and Gold Lounge, you’ll also be able to test out UMBC’s new Retriever Stories site, where members of the UMBC community can tell stories of the university’s past and present, and  representatives from the Albin O. Kuhn Library archives will be on hand Tuesday and Friday to talk UMBC history.The UMBC Bookstore will also be on site with 50th Anniversary and UMBC merchandise.

For more information about Light City and Light City U, visit lightcity.org.