Community Input Wanted To Create Colourful Celebrations At Ness Bridge

As part of its vision for Inverness city centre The Highland Council has made a key feature of the Ness Bridge by installing strips of colour-changing LED lights to the 68 metre long underside of the bridge.  The lighting installation is fully programmable using software which can be used to design a myriad of dynamic, animated colour schemes.

The Council would now like to fully exploit the potential of the lights on the bridge to create in colour an annual calendar of celebration days and events and is looking for ideas from schools, charities and community groups to design a succession of lighting effects to celebrate or commemorate seasonal events, festivals or other significant dates.

Provost of Inverness, Jimmy Gray said:  “As the most northerly city in the UK, Inverness enjoys approximately 4,000 hours of darkness each year. The Ness Bridge lights are programmed to come on with the street lights at dusk and operate until 2am each day which allows a significant period of time to enjoy the decorative effects or even to communicate a message by displaying the colours which have been adopted by a charity or are associated with a season. There is a great potential to use the lights in lots of exciting ways so we want local charities, schools and community groups to come forward with suggestions on how we can turn this asset into an eye-catching year-round feature of our city.”

Evanton-based arts organisation Arts in Motion have been commissioned to create the calendar with input from the community.  Charities, schools and community groups who would like to identify a date and colour or lighting design for the bridge for a special occasion should contact Arts in Motion who will do their best to achieve it.

Contact: John McGeoch, Arts in artsinmotion @btinternet.com

Cathy Shankland, -  Cathy.Shankland@highland.gov.uk  Tel;.01463 663800 or 01463 710978