Where art meets innovation: immersive light, sound, and video installations that ignite downtown Kelowna.
Light Up Kelowna is a bold public art initiative that blends light, sound, and video projections to transform downtown Kelowna into a dynamic digital experience. Born out of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, this project has evolved from a temporary installation into a lasting celebration of creativity, innovation, and community connection.
The exhibition consists of three connected experiences: immersive projections along the Artwalk, a layered audio installation, and a three-channel video displayed on the Kelowna Community Theatre. These elements work in harmony to transform the downtown core into a living gallery.
A partnership between ARTSCO, UBCO’s FCCS, and the City of Kelowna—with generous funding from Canada Healthy Communities, the United Way Recovery Fund, and the BC Arts Council—this project brings together artists, academics, and community leaders.
Spearheaded by ARTSCO’s Executive Director Kirsteen McCulloch, and developed by faculty including Dr. Miles Thorogood, Dr. Aleksandra Dulic, and Dr. Yujie Gao, the project merges artistic expression with digital innovation. Together, we’re building a more vibrant, inclusive, and connected city—one light at a time.
As Light Up Kelowna continues to develop, it remains dedicated to evolving its offerings and enhancing the cultural fabric of the region. By embracing new technologies and artistic expressions, the initiative aims to position Kelowna as a leader in public art, setting the stage for future creativity and collaboration that will resonate with generations to come.
Located at The Kelowna Art Walk
421 Cawston Ave, Kelowna, BC, Canada
Discover us in the heart of Kelowna's vibrant cultural district, where art, creativity, and community come together. From captivating exhibitions to inspiring programs, immerse yourself in a space that celebrates local talent and fosters meaningful connections.
“Light Up Kelowna is not only an opportunity to showcase the talent within our community but also a chance to bring people together in a joyful celebration of art and creativity.”
— Kirsteen McCulloch, Executive Director, ARTSCO
Made Possible By
Aleksandra Dulic’s research is centered on the creation of interactive systems and experiences that bring local, cultural and communal resources to the forefront. One thread of her research involves the development of learning context and experiences using game play as a device for sustainability awareness grounded in local ecology. Another thread is the research in interactive installation with multi-channel audio-visual displays that enable the creation of complex community images. The final thread is developing interactive systems and animated projection experiences that are staged and performed live. These three threads of research intersect in the idea of interactive art as a place for community reflection.
Dulic teaches at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, where she also directs the Centre for Culture and Technology; an interdisciplinary arts-research center. She creates media artifacts, experiences, and performances with a variety of collaborators.
Kirsteen McCulloch is the Executive Director of the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan. Born and raised in the Okanagan, Kirsteen recently returned to Kelowna after many years of living and working in the technology sector in Vancouver. Her love of all things creative, progressive, and boundary-breaking was fostered at an early age. In her role with ARTSCO, Kirsteen is returning to her roots as an arts advocate and community organizer. Her natural sense of curiosity allows her to find solutions, solve challenges and create opportunities in the most complex situations. Kirsteen’s effervescent optimism shines through in her humor and her ability to relate to others. She’s constantly looking for the dots — the sparks of magic — the moments of inspiration — that connect people, purpose, and possibilities.
Miles Thorogood is an artist/engineer at the University of British Columbia with research in the practice and theory of sound design and interactive digital art. His research seeks to identify formal models of creativity as it is by investigating aspects of human perception and design process in order to encode creative structures for computer-assisted technologies in art-making environments. Miles specializes in quantitative and qualitative methods from Music Information Retrieval, Human Computer Interaction, and Artificial Intelligence toward cutting edge research in the development of novel computational models and systems for artistic creation. Research contributions include new knowledge in the fields of soundscape studies, affective computing, music information retrieval, and media arts. The research has been featured as interactive museum exhibits, installations, and performances. The interactive installation and performance works frame the research in creative practice that brings meaningful contexts of experience and environment to the foreground using algorithmic processes combining art-making, audio and visual media, databases, artificial intelligence, and physical and network computing.
