Illuminate our campus through TMU Lights
Apply to highlight important events, causes and celebrations with LED lights on the RCC bridge, seen lit up in blue above, and the LED street light poles on Gould and Victoria streets.
Across our urban campus, community members may have observed a display of colourful lights in the evenings. Now a new initiative, TMU Lights, invites community members to join the conversation and reflect the values and special celebrations of our community through architecture and light.
Community members may propose colour changes to the LED street light poles on Gould and Victoria Streets and the LED lights on the Church Street bridge. The programmable lights can create captivating ambient effects in a vast range of colors to highlight important themes, events and causes relevant to the TMU community. While these lights are used to commemorate widely recognized events, such as national holidays and cultural celebrations, they can also support and complement special occasions like International Day of Pink or International Women’s Day.
TMU Lights co-director Dave Colangelo first conceptualized this program. “I wanted to establish an initiative that provides our community an opportunity to customize the colour of the lights, and enable a diversity of interests and lived experiences to be reflected at scale, with visibility and importance.”
The LED street light poles on Gould and Victoria streets, seen above, programmed in TMU colours - blue and gold - to celebrate community.
This initiative represents the energy and values of the TMU community and symbolizes TMU’s engagement in important global, national and local conversations. “Large-scale public lighting can play a crucial role in public practices of communication, commemoration, and celebration,” says Colangelo, who is a professor of digital creation and communication at the School of Professional Communication at TMU. “With the support and participation of the community we hope to open up spaces for representation and dialogue, and make the campus vibrant with the interests, experiences, and values of our community.”
Lighting proposals can be submitted by anyone from the TMU community at least 30 days in advance of the desired lighting date. Proposals will be reviewed by a committee for approval, keeping in mind that timeliness, campus relevance and inclusivity are factors. To learn more about how to make a TMU Lights request, visit the TMU Lights website and read the program’s Terms of Application, then make a request by filling out the (google form) Lighting Proposal Form (external link) .
Community members are also invited to follow along and participate by using the hashtag #TMUlights on social media.