Each year, Olbrich Botanical Gardens hosts GLEAM, an event where glowing art is set across the 16 acre gardens. For the past 3 years, I’ve had the pleasure in getting to experience this event and it isn’t one you want to miss. 

This year’s GLEAM is open from August 24th to October 26th, tickets cost $16. This year it featured 11 large scale art pieces and many other glowing attractions as you walk through the gardens at night, which isn’t something Olbrich has at any other time of the year. Multiple of these attractions are actually interactive and allow you to, in part, help create the art that illuminates the gardens. 

The first of these 11 pieces is called “Jane” and was designed by Nate Mohler. From a distance, it just seems like a glowing tower, but if you get closer and examine it from multiple angles, you can see it reflected deep into the fountain it is set up in, giving the illusion of it not ending. The name and piece is dedicated to those who are “lost to time, remembering every ‘Jane Doe’ whose spirit has been forgotten” (Olbrich Gleam). 

Most of the attractions have a story behind it, like Jane does, and most people who visit forget to look deeper into these stories, so a tip to anyone who does visit, read up on each of the stories before or while attending, it makes you look at the art very differently. 

The stories aren’t the only fun part of the event; it also features many interactive art pieces that make the night more enjoyable. This year featured two interactive art pieces, both near the end of the walk. The first had multiple microphones that detected animal sounds that guests made. These sounds were translated into different art pieces projected onto the trees nearby. The second featured a video camera that would stretch the images it recorded into distorted moving images. 

My personal favorite installation was one that glowed so brightly you could see it from quite a distance. This one was called “Yield” and was a plastic field of corn lit with LEDs. Loud, fun music accompanied the piece and it seemed like the corn danced along. It was a great place for pictures and just fun to stand immersed in the stalks. 

Gleam is a wonderful, Madison exclusive event that changes every year. It’s something that can be special to everyone in a different way and most certainly something to check out before the end of October.