2023
“The Open Book” celebrated the free exchange of ideas, with lanterns that represented the books that have inspired, enlightened, or shaped how we see the world.
2022
“The Reimagined Monument” created the opportunity for unique, personal reflection on how we memorialize—a shared, collective reimagining of public statuary.
2021
“Play On!” was inspired by the intersection of Duke Ellington and Shakespeare and explored how the act of play helps us find personal meaning and resilience within collective traditions.
Morningside Lights connected to the spirit of Harlem through “Harlem Night Song” (a poem by Langston Hughes), with lanterns that illuminated the poem and embodied its spirit of togetherness in dark times.
2020
2019
Columbia University’s Year of Water set the scene for "Island" which resulted in a chain of glowing islands with a shared vision to remind us that, in the end, none of us is an island.
2018
"Flight" honored the resilience and hope of populations on the move—avian and human—and celebrated the vitality and diversity that migrations have always brought to New York.
2017
Morningside Lights celebrated “The Secret Gardens” of Harlem with illuminated birds, animals, flowers, honey bees, musical instruments, and more.
2016
Morningside Lights: TRAVERSE celebrated the Pulitzer Prize centennial and inspired lanterns illuminating favorite passages from poets who have won this distinctive honor.
“New York Nocturne" inspired participants to create fantastical evocations of the city after dark.
2015
Romare Bearden's 1977 collage series "A Black Odyssey" set the wheels in motion for Morningside Light's own epic "Odysseus on the A Train."
2014
A sea-floor fantasy of luminescent life forms emerged from the workshops and lit our way from Morningside Park to the Columbia University campus as participants explored the theme “The Luminous Deep,” set to an original score by Nathan Davis.
2013
“The Imagined City” featured illuminated skyscrapers soaring high above the crowds through Morningside Park.