“Leave a light in the window” has taken on a whole new scope of meaning at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio, since last Friday. That’s the day artist James Turrell’s permanent installation of a light show first lit up Palm House, the conservatory’s Victorian-style greenhouse. Seven thousand inconspicuously strung, low-voltage, light-emitting (LED) bulbs now emit a glowing display of changing jewel-like hues from dusk-to-dawn.

Click here for the Columbus Dispatch article about the Palm House installation.

Turrell, the artistic mastermind of the Palm House installation, is no neophyte when it comes to light shows, having put on 140 solo exhibitions worldwide since 1967—utilizing many types of artificial light, including neon, fiber optics, fluorescents and lasers. He’s best known for his 35-year project at the Roden Crater, a natural cinder volcano in Arizona’s Painted Desert.

Click here for a PBS biography of Turrell plus multimedia links about his work.

Photography © Brad Feinknopf 2008