GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — World of Winter enters its second week, drawing crowds to downtown Grand Rapids and generating significant economic impact for the area.
The festival's artistic installations are spread throughout downtown during the seventh annual World of Winter, transforming the city center into an outdoor gallery and playground for all ages.
"Every time I put this thing up, I do see something new," Loop artist Harriet Lumby said.
Her piece "Emergence" is located in the heart of Calder Plaza. The piece has approximately 14,000 individually addressed LEDs and 75 large mirrors arranged in a cylindrical pavilion-style structure.
"Because of the nature of the piece. I feel like the environment really changes the different places we exhibit bring it to a different light. And I feel like it's really changes my experience personally when I see it," Lumby said.
I caught up with the British artist a few weeks ago as she and a team installed the elaborate light sculpture.
"So, 'Emergence' is a light sculpture based on the edge of chaos. So it's about that, like, blurred line between order and chaos, and how, like, all creativity kind of stems from this, like, thin line, gray area, where it needs, like, the perfect amount of order and chaos," Lumby said.
The festival was created to address the historically quiet winter months in downtown Grand Rapids.
"Years back, when we were looking at the event calendar and got some feedback from the community, we really wanted to generate a way for people to come downtown in January and February, historically pretty quiet months," Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. Communications Director Bill Kirk said.
Those months are no longer quiet. Last year, the festival attracted 2.3 million visitors and generated $38 million in spending, including $13.6 million for meals, snacks and drinks, and $8.3 million in purchases from retail stores.
Kirk says the World of Winter schedule is designed to create a steady stream of visitors to the city.
"We bring in all these installations and put them in our public spaces to give people something to interact with and something to enjoy. We also pack the event calendar for two months straight with over 20 events. So it's really kind of makes downtown an outdoor gallery and a playground for all ages," Kirk said.
While visitors can interact with many installations, some art pieces are meant to be observed rather than climbed.
"It's kind of more about the illusion of being inside it and seeing, seeing the piece without climbing it," Lumby said.
World of Winter continues until March 1. Details on the festival's schedule are available HERE.
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