- Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan and welcome to "ARTEFFECTS."

Each year in February, the Western Lights Illuminated Art Festival fills the heart of downtown Reno with music, art, and activities for all ages.

The event is designed to celebrate public art and creative expression.

When it comes to Western Lights?

The brighter, the better.

(gentle sober music) - Western Lights Illuminated Art Festival is a large scale illuminated art festival where we transform all of downtown Reno into an open air art gallery for three magical days.

(bright upbeat music) We closed down the center of the heart of downtown Reno from Virginia Street Bridge all the way down to 6th Street.

And we program sculptural art, performance art, music all throughout the downtown core.

(upbeat lively music) - For the 2026 festival, we've expanded the footprint by almost two times the size of last year.

We have more art, more than 50 installations this year.

- We have over 70 live performance artists between Fresh Bakin' who coordinates all of our music to a local non-profit circus that we partner with, Biggest Little Circus.

- To be able to showcase the artistry that we have in our local circus community is what Biggest Little Circus was founded for, was to give more robust opportunities to local artists.

And so, this festival is a really instrumental piece of being able to provide that.

(soft techno music) - Nearly 70% of our art and over 80% of our performance art is all local in the Reno Tahoe area.

(gentle lively music) - The city of Reno did a study.

And in that study it was all about how we revitalize our downtown.

One of the key recommendations from the group who did our study was to come up with one to two next generation of what we call legacy events.

So, what's that big event that brings Renoites and visitors back downtown to gather, to celebrate and to connect.

Hands down across the world, these large scale illuminated art and technology festivals are all the rage.

So, we started some visits.

We went to Napa Lighted Art Festival.

We went to Blink in Cincinnati.

We went to Portland Winter Lights Festival and drew a lot of inspiration.

And Western Lights was born.

(upbeat music) We've added a lot in 2026.

One of the biggest things we added is more community partnerships.

We've partnered with the University of Reno, Nevada and they're doing a dome takeover on Thursday opening night with the planetarium.

- Some of these objects in the universe are absolutely stunning.

So we thought, "Well, let's look at some of the brightest objects ever during Western lights.

That'd be a fun combination of art and science."

I love it that people have been combining art, music, technology, science as a way to engage us all in learning about our place in space and exploring the universe.

So, we love that we get to continue that and we love to get to partner with our friends here at the festival.

- Some of the key elements for being the executive producer is just taking a lot of information from the artists, from the build, from the logistics standpoint.

- This behind me is Fios, the Sea Stallion.

We made Fios in 2018.

That was like a collaborative group project that I did with a handful of friends, and it's all handcrafted.

We built the steel skeleton and then the whole front is copper.

The phoenix is also handmade.

It's made out of cedar.

All those feathers on the wings and the body are all individually hand carved cedar feathers and copper, and the eyes are glass, and she was made in the year of the fire rooster.

It's really special to bring it down to be seen by a place that's never seen it before, you know?

It's like, a lot of love went into this piece.

- Keeping the festival free is really very core to our mission.

We wanna make sure as many people as possible can attend and there's really as few barriers to entry as possible.

And in order to do that, we have some paid experiences like our VIP.

And then, we're raising dollars through sponsorships, in kind donations.

We have a individual giving program, a crowdfunding campaign.

All of the ways that nonprofits raise money, we are actively doing and will continue to do.

(gentle music) - Being able to collaborate with the City of Reno, with Rachel, with Megan, the team that's built Western Lights to what it is today, and hopefully to grow into the future, I would've never met these people if there wasn't this opportunity to work with them and work with the artists and the musicians that are local and some of the traveling musicians and artists that come in.

Just a big collaboration, a lot of different parts.

So, that's probably like my favorite.

Building something new and being creative with a bunch of cool people.

- I really see Western Lights as addressing three core problems.

One is that downtown Reno is really not living up to its potential and really needs some revitalization.

And I'm inviting people through this festival to have a new relationship with downtown and to imagine what's possible.

Number two is that we have an incredible community of arts.

Artists and creators in Reno.

And we really wanna elevate them, give them more opportunities and more exposure.

And number three is probably the one closest to my heart, is the fact that we're really seeing an epidemic of loneliness and social isolation in Reno and across the country more broadly.

And we need third spaces.

This idea of places where people come, not where they work and not where they live, but where they can interact, where people across social divides, across economic divides, across political divides, can all come together and have a shared experience together that really creates like a sense of belonging and a sense of identity and connection both with each other and with the place and the city that we live in.

- For me personally, this event has a tremendous amount of significance.

I'm really motivated and inspired by increasing our youth's access to art and artistic experiences.

And I want a kid to walk up to that sculpture and say, "Mommy, daddy, I wanna make that," and know that they can someday.

So, really for me it's inspiring our youth at the intersection of art and technology, and helping them see whether it's a DJ, a circus performer, a musician or a sculptor, to see it, be inspired and know that anything is possible.

(gentle music) - [Presenter] Funding for "ARTEFFECTS" is made possible by Sandy Raffeali with Bill Pierce Motors.

Heidemarie Rochlin.

In memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Frank Buck Foundation.

And by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(gentle bright music)