Thank you Thank you Matt Jones!

A very special tip of the hat to Matt Jones for being the final backer for Illuminate Kickstarter campaign. Matt pledged toward the Book Arts Package, which not only made the project fully funded, but garnered 50 dollars more than the goal. I am so happy for your support, Matt, Thanks again.

Thanks BUS125LLC.

Thank you to BUS125LLC for pledging to Illuminate during the final countdown of the campaign, and for being Metal.

Thanks Sarah Burger!

Thank you, Sarah my friend, for helping out this project and for being a wonderful person and great Detroit artist. I appreciate you!

Thank you Tim Schoenherr.

Thanks Tim for pledging for the Print is Not Dead package in the final hours of the Illuminate Kickstarter craze. Your funding made a big difference, Thank you!

Thanks Hotchy Kiene.

Thank you so much Hotchy, for being so supportive of both Jamiel and I! I appreciate your pledge.

Thank you Vicki Calabro!

Thanks to my beautiful cousin Vicki for supporting the Illuminate endeavor with the Print is Not Dead package! You're wonderful, can't wait to see you this summer.

Thank you Ted Graham.

Thanks to my sweet cousin Ted for pledging toward the Book Arts Package, AND for lighting a fire under the rest of my family for the Kickstarter campaign when there were just hours to spare. Thanks for the support, Ted!

Thanks Alexa J. Rittichier.

Thank you Alexa for being a great colleague and friend this year, and for funding Illuminate with the Thank You Thank You Thank You package! Cheers!xoxo

Thanks Michael Perz!

Thank you Mr. Mike Perz for your generous donation toward the project and for being all around rad. I'll see you this Summer for sure.

Thank You Jackie McGill!

Thanks to the lovely and talented Jackie McGill for your pledge toward Illuminate! Thanks girl!

Thank You Tricia Martin!

Thanks to Tricia for pledging toward the Detroit Arts Package, and for being a great neighbor. We'll make some more throwies for Chicago!

Thanks to Susan Capell.

Thank You Susan for being so interested in the project, and for your kind support of Illuminate!

Thanks to halfof42!

Thank you halfof42 for backing Illuminate and helping the project to succeed!

Thanks to Amy Loree.

Thank you to the always lovely Amy for helping to back Illuminate! Cheers sister!

Thank You Tom Nardone!

Thank you to Tom for backing Illuminate with the Thank You Thank You Thank You Package! I appreciate it.

Thank You Paul Isakson!

A Huge thanks to my brother Paul for his great generosity toward the Illuminate project. You helped greatly, and were able to be part of a Detroit art installation all the way from LA! I'm glad you'll get the book arts package!

Thank you Maria Brummel

Thanks to Maria who also kindly increased her pledge during the campaign for the Thank You Thank You Thank You Package! I am looking forward to sending you these lovely gifts! Thanks for the support!

Thanks Samantha Beckett!

Thank you to my dear friend and fellow redhead Sam for the pledge and the yoga and for letting me hang out with her super cute kitten! xo

Thank You to Mike LaHood!

Thanks to Hoodie, my new colleague and friend, for your kind donation to Illuminate! I appreciate all of your support this year! Cheers.

So many people to thank!

So sorry it's taken me so long to post, this weekend has been an incredible whirlwind.

Two amazing things to report:

ILLUMINATE was FUNDED on Kickstarter at over 100% with an hour to spare!!!!

and

The INSTALLATION was a great SUCCESS!!!


I am so so happy with all of the support and contribution that this project benefitted from in the last two weeks. Forward Arts and Friends of Scripps Park had a fantastic opening day for the exhibition and there was a wonderful turnout from the Woodbridge community. The fabulous people who backed the project on Kickstarter should be very proud, I am so excited to create this book to share the experience with you all!

I will be uploading photos once I return to Chicago, but I'll attach some here from my phone over the last few days.


Thank you everyone for the great experience of this project!

Thanks to Nancy Naperela!

Thank you Nancy for pledging toward the Thank You x3 package! xoxox

Thank You Scott Dillon!

Great Thank You to Mr. Scott Dillon, my first partner in park related art work with Walk in Theater! What a dear friend you are!!!

Thanks to Jenna Rodriguez!

Thank you J-Rod for pledging toward Illuminate for the Thank You Thank You Thank You package! Jenna is a wonderful printmaker and a great supporter! YAY.

Thank you to Hannah King!

Thank you to my lovely friend Hannah King for her pledge to Illuminate, and for spreading the word! Check out a link to her blog .... Goooood Books!

Thanks to Stephen Fuzzytek.

Thanks to Stephen for his pledge toward Illuminate!

Thanks to k8hinote!

Thanks to k8hinote for pledging toward Illuminate!

Thank you Jess Zimbabwe!

Thank you so much to Jess for pledging towards the Detroit Arts Package on Kickstarter!!!

Thank you to Connie Jacobs.

Thanks to Connie for your pledge toward the Illuminate project! Thanks to you, we are at 46%... getting closer!

Thank you to Sarah Sharp.

Thank you Sarah for backing Illuminate, and good luck on your Kickstarter project, Couches of Detroit.

Thank you to April Llewellyn.

Thanks to Miss April Llewellyn for her pledge. Look for her in Detroit this summer as she embarks on a paper-making road trip adventure!

The Story behind the Public Art in Scripps Park, via thepoint.com

For more information on the partnerships and groups that are making this project possible, please visit Scripps Park Detroit on The Point website.

It gives a great overview of the community that is dedicated to reviving Scripps Park, along with a video that captures the essence of the space.

Again, a big, amazing thank you to Foward Arts, Woodbridge Neighborhood Development Corporation and Friends of Scripps Park through Access Arts, Forwards Arts' Visual Arts & Education Program for doing something so great in Detroit.

Thank you to Julie Lucas!

Thank you bunches Julie for your support! xo

More LED Links:

Thanks to Greg Tom for the links to the Creators Project.
http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/creators/james-powderly/media/led-throwies

Thank you Diana McLean.

Thank you so much to Diana for the newest funding pledge! We are so much closer to the goal!!!

A Pretty Little Throwie Video and Links.

or click here to see the vid on YouTube.

LED Throwies were invented by the Graffiti Research Lab, and there is a nice little DIY tutorial at Instructables.

I had a Throwie making party for my last solo show at my 4731 Studio, and it was pretty magical. I'm excited to work with them again!

I've received my magnets in the mail, hopefully the LEDs and batteries will be here tomorrow and I can post a little photo demo to show what Illuminate will look like!

Thank you to Carol Isakson!

I would like to thank librarian extraordinaire Carol Isakson, who also happens to be my mother, for pledging toward the Book Arts Package on Kickstarter! Thanks, Mom!

Thank you to George Jacobsen.

I know I've been overusing exclaimation points on this blog, but !!!!! GEO!! Thanks to you Illuminate is 1/3 of a way towards the goal!
Thanks to Geo, who chose the Book Arts Package.

Thank you Chris Land!

Thanks to Chris and Landmine Design for being so amazing and supportive throughout all of my art career!

Link UP!

Want to keep supporting Illuminate?

You can keep updated here, on the Facebook event page, or on the Kickstarter page.

If you're attending, please RSVP via Facebook and invite your friends! The more the merrier!

Cheers!
Elizabeth

Thank you Thank you Tom Maher!

Tom, my generous friend, is the first person on Kickstarter to donate towards the Special Collection Package. I'm one step closer thanks to you, Tom.

Thank you to Josh Knight!

Thanks Josh for helping the project along!!

Thanks to Allison Glenn!

Thank You to lovely Miss Allison Glenn for your donation, my Chicago grad school comrade!

Thank you to Dave Kreiger!

Thanks to the talented photographer Mr. Dave "Suge White" Kreiger for his support on Kickstarter!

Official Press Release for Illuminate!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 2, 2011

Announcing Illuminate, a new site-specific art installation by Elizabeth Isakson, in Anna Scripps Park in Detroit’s Historic Woodbridge neighborhood, opening on May 14, 2011 from 3-8 pm, made possible by Access Arts Detroit.

illuminate
vb [ɪˈluːmɪˌneɪt]
1. (tr) to throw light in or into; light up to illuminate a room
2. (tr) to make easily understood; clarify
3. to adorn, decorate, or be decorated with lights
4. (Bookbinding) (tr) to decorate (a letter, page, etc.) by the application of colors, gold, or silver
5. (intr) to become lighted up

On May 14, Isakson will launch Illuminate, a site-specific installation in Scripps Park, that will feature messages from Detroiters attached to thousands of glowing LEDs that will shed light on the energy that is surrounding the revival of Detroit. The exhibition will run until May 21.

Isakson is inviting participants to attend the event on May 14th, where they can write a message on a slip of handmade paper. This message can express their view as a citizen of Detroit, or answer a posed question, such as:
How does it feel to be from Detroit?
What is a way to make Detroit a better place?
What do you want the rest of the world to know about Detroit?
Detroiters and friends of Detroit from all walks of life are invited to attend and invite others to participate in Illuminate by writing their own unique message.

Once written, the messages will then be encased in a layer of waterproof contact paper, and attached to a small, colored LED light and placed in the park. The end result will be an illuminated park that also serves as a manuscript, and viewers will be invited to interact with the lights, reading messages and re-arranging them throughout the space. The glowing lights in the park will symbolize the ideas Detroit’s people have to make the city a better place, and Scripps Park will be as vibrant as the community surrounding it.

The LED message lights in Illuminate will be attached to objects throughout Scripps Park- hung from trees, scattered on the grass, magnetized to the playground equipment and the iconic gate surrounding the perimeter. The ideal result will be noticeable to street traffic from Trumbull, Grand River, and Martin Luther King Drive. The event and installation will take place from 3pm until dusk, so participants can witness the park becoming illuminated with their messages in the dark.

The messages, process and final installation of Illuminate will be photographed and formed into a print-on-demand artist’s book, which will be available for sale online, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the Greening of Detroit. A limited edition artists book will also be made in later months and copies of this book will be donated to the Detroit Institute of Arts, MOCAD, The Detroit Public Library, and The School of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University.

Illuminate is inspired by two trends in 21st Century graffiti tactics: LED Throwies and Book Bombs. Throwies are small LED lights attached to a watch battery and rare earth magnet, that can be thrown onto a ferro-magnetic surface (ex, a train car or steel building) to create safe, non-damaging light graffiti. Book Bombs, a collaboration between artists Mary Tasillo and Michelle Wilson, is a project that places printed books and zines in the “invisible city within a city”- park benches, empty lots, and abandoned buildings- in order to re-contextualize public spaces.

Elizabeth Isakson is a Detroit artist and musician, currently residing in Chicago where she is an MFA Candidate in the Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts program at Columbia College Chicago.

For more information, please visit:
Access Arts Detroit: http://www.accessartsdetroit.org/
The Illuminate Project Blog: http://illuminatedetroit.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth Isakson’s Blog: http://elizabethisakson.blogspot.com/
The Greening of Detroit: http://www.greeningofdetroit.com/


To help fund a portion of Illuminate, please visit:
The Illuminate Kickstarter page:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1683502915/illuminate-a-site-specific-art-installation-in-det




Thank you,
Elizabeth Isakson

Thank you to Harold!

Thank you Harold Taylor, my second backer for Illuminate! Horray!

Thank YOU!!

Thank you to my first backer, beautiful Abbey Taylor!

Kickstarter Page is LIVE!!

And we already have some support!!

Please go to the Illuminate page and learn more about the project, and perhaps give a little to make it happen!!!

So excited to see this come to life!!!!

If the link above has difficulty connecting, cut and paste this little number:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1683502915/illuminate-a-site-specific-art-installation-in-det

Announcing Illuminate's Project Blog!!!!

Illuminate is a site-specific art installation in Anna Scripps Park in the Historic Woodbridge Neighborhood of Detroit!!



Please check here for project updates, photos, links and more information as the project progresses!!!



Thanks, Elizabeth.




ps- the above image is from instrutables.com, illustrating LED throwies which will be used in the Illuminate project!