Liberty's Beacon: An Artistic Light Installation

Liberty's Beacon is running at the National WWI Museum and Memorial through Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov. 11. It's a light installation that turns the Memorial's limestone into a living surface, projecting across the North Wall, the Great Frieze, and the Liberty Memorial Tower, with the crowd gathering on the North Lawn. The whole thing was created as the museum marked its 100th anniversary alongside the nation's 250th, and the museum's centennial theme, Remember Forward, is the thread that ties it together.

The installation draws on the virtues carved into the architecture: Honor, Courage, Sacrifice and Patriotism. The tower is topped by four guardian spirits carved a century ago, and the project is meant to invite a new generation to carry those virtues forward. Three internationally acclaimed light artists were commissioned for the work, and each takes a weekend with their own installation and a custom score. French video painter Xavier de Richemont spent a decade as artistic director of the Festival of Lights in Chartres; Paris-based projection designers Leslie Epsztein and Camille Gross have worked on large-scale pieces across Lyon, London and Avignon; and Barcelona studio Onionlab has done projection mapping for the Museo del Prado's bicentennial and the Spanish Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020. The project is guided by a board-appointed committee and supported by Premier Sponsors including Kemper Family Foundations and the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation.

It's been running since Friday, Sept. 25, and continues every weekend through Veterans Day. Each night the show runs 8 to 10 minutes, starting at 7:30 PM and repeating every 15 minutes until the final showing at 10:30 PM. Admission is free, and no tickets are required.