May 03

Lumonics Legacy Project Aims to Keep Immersive Pioneers’ Vision Alive by Teague Bohlen, Westword

 

Lumonics Gallery and Performance Space on 73rd and Washington…for now.  Photo by Marc Billard

Lumonics Light and Sound Gallery has been around for decades, ever since artists Mel and Dorothy Tanner started working with light sculptures and sound to create immersive experiences back in 1969. Dubbed “Lumonics,” the unique art form was conceived to engage multiple senses — primarily sight and sound — simultaneously, providing audiences a deeper connection to the work and the world around it.

Barry Raphael and Marc Billard became part of the Lumonics artist collective in 1972, when they separately encountered what the Tanners were already deeply into. “It started for me when I walked into the Tanners’ gallery in Miami,” recalls Raphael, who was the first to join the collective. “I was a language arts teacher in Chicago at the time, and a friend of mine was splitting his time between Chicago and working down at Dade Community College. He told me about it, and I went. It was like the ultimate field trip for me. It was an amazing moment, seeing the theater the Tanners had set up and everything in it. My friend was thinking of trying to move it back up to Chicago, but that never happened. I never set out to move to Miami, but it’s just the way it happened. The experience had mesmerized me.”

“And I was working construction at the time in South Florida,” adds Billard. Mel Tanner’s sister was his neighbor at the time, and she’d told him he should go and check it out. It took him about a year to do so, but when he did, Billard says his reaction was remarkable. “Oh, my God,” he says. “I was speechless.” Mel asked him if he wanted to do some work with him. That was the beginning of Billard (along with his wife, Barbara, who passed away in the summer of 2023) working with the Lumonics collective, building many of the pieces from then on.

“It was Marc’s arrival and all his wonderful work that was really the first expansion point back then,” Raphael says. “He was able to create larger pieces with more detail, and that’s what Mel [Tanner] was working for.”

Mel was working with simple shapes before,” says Billard. “When I came in and got my fingers in it, it was able to become very different. Wall pieces and sculptures. New designs. It changed.”

 

Barry Raphael and Marc Billard have helped represent Lumonics for over fifty years

They brought the Tanners’ artistic legacy to Denver in 2008, where it’s resided ever since, and Raphael and Billard are working to ensure that the exhibitions survive and thrive for many years to come. They still put on immersive shows every Saturday night at the Lumonics Light and Sound Gallery, 800 East 73rd Avenue; tickets are still only $25, are limited to a small, intimate group only, and include refreshments as well as illumination. Tickets for that event and several others are available through Eventbrite.

But in terms of the future of the project, Raphael and Billard have started the Lumonics Legacy Project. They hope to raise $30,000 in order to preserve more than 200 Tanner light sculptures, as well as the Lumonics archives, which include collages, sketchbooks, hand-painted 35-millimeter slides, original projector tray paintings, preserved media articles, photographs and an expanding library of music visuals. In addition to raising money for creating a sustainable legacy and future, the crowdfunding effort plans to establish a Friends of Lumonics nonprofit, which will support partnerships to share Lumonics with the world.

“We’re in our seventies now,” smiles Raphael, “and are deeply committed to seeing this work remain accessible for future generations. What was once a collective of seven is down to just us two, but we have friends who’ve volunteered to help us create this Legacy Project.”

Specifically, Raphael hopes that the project will allow Lumonics to bring more than 100 pieces out of storage and work on restoring them, with more environmentally sound and long-lasting LED technologies, while still keeping within Mel and Dorothy Tanner’s original vision.

Raphael says that the final step of the Legacy Project would be for the whole collection and gallery to move one more time.

 

Dec 25

How We Create the Visuals and Music at Lumonics Immersed

The source material for the projection comes from an archive of imagery that late artists Dorothy and Mel Tanner originated at the Lumonics Light and Sound Theatre in Miami in 1969, and continues to this day in our performances of Lumonics Immersed here in Denver. The Tanners’ light sculptures also play an important role. We think of the art pieces as the “Lumonics Light Orchestra”.


Here are some of the components of the projection:

1. Hand-painted 35 mm slides by Dorothy and Mel Tanner, a process that began in 1969 in the original Lumonics Light and Sound Theatre in Miami, FL and ended upon Mel’s death in 1993. Hundreds of these slides are in our archives and have been digitized. Here are some examples:

 

 

2. Lumonics video productions from 1978 until present that included the late Dorothy Tanner, Mel Tanner, and engineer John Hall, and Marc Billard who continues the productions at Lumonics Immersed and orchestrates the Lumonics Light Orchestra live.

3. Colorado car rides and hikes, from urban to rural areas, which Marc Billard records and produces. Mountains, streams, forests, streets and roads are the source material. Marc then transforms the imagery in production, and adds an original soundtrack. We think of the finished productions as “alchemized nature films”. No AI is involved!

The photos below are examples of some of the source material.

 

These photos are of Marc Billard using his 360 camera with a selfie stick and also his mobile phone camera to record in the mountains of Colorado. (along Peak to Peak Highway and the St. Vrain River):

 

 

This is a 2-minute excerpt from projection at one of the episodes of Lumonics Immersed:
 

 

The music is a collaboration of Dorothy Tanner and Marc Billard (Tanner/Billard) that began in 1994 and ended upon Dorothy’s passing in 2020. Marc continues to produce music for Lumonics Immersed. It is produced using samples, keyboards, and also can include some of Dorothy’s spoken word we call Cosmic Rap.

 

 

Dec 25

Recent Students at the Lumonics School of Light Art

Our recent students for a one-day Sunday session at the Lumonics School of Light Art:
Kennedy is in 7th grade
Adrian is in 5th grade
The cubes cycle through many colors.

 

Kennedy, 7th grade student

 

 

 

Adrian, 5th Grade Student, whose cube hasn’t found the right spot in his home yet, according to his Dad.

 

Their Dad, Fabian, examining the details

Dec 17

Westword Arts & Culture Promotional Newsletter: Enter the Lumonics Portal

This is a copy of the Dec 17, 2025 Westword Arts & Culture Promotional Newsletter from which we are getting a wonderful response. The original had a black background ground and white text.

Dec 10

Neuroarts Resource Center

 

 

This past May, while watching the  PBS Newshour, there was a segment about neuro arts.  Journalist Jeffrey Brown  visited the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore  for PBS’s  arts and culture series, CANVAS. One of the topics was the book, ‘Your Brain On Art: How The Arts Transform Us,’ shows both the growth and importance of the field that connects the arts and our health. Here is the link to the program.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-a-blend-of-science-and-art-is-improving-neurological-health

I wrote a blog about it on www.lumonics.net.

Susan Magsamen is co-author with Ivy Ross, vice president for design at Google, of “Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.”  She gave Jeffrey Brown a day’s tour of ongoing examples at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she directs the International Arts and Mind Lab.

I connected recently with Susan on LinkedIn and she appreciates what we are doing at Lumonics where the intention of the light sculpture installation, the field trips, guided tours, and immersive performances is to promote well-being and stimulate creativity. Dr. Jomar Suarez, a psychiatrist, has written about the therapeutic potential of Lumonics.

Lumonics is honored to be invited to the Neuroarts Resource Center. We look forward to connecting with other art projects, researchers, and educators.

“The field of neuroarts is the study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the brain, body, and behavior – and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing. The goal of the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative is to ensure that the arts and the use of the arts – in all of its many forms – become part of mainstream medicine and public health.”

The NRC is a first-of-its-kind online asset designed to bring diverse fields, people, and organizations together across the globe, through an easy-to-access platform.

 

The NeuroArts Blueprint Iniatiative

Neuroarts is the place where a growing body of research-based knowledge about how the brain and body respond to the experience of art is stored. And it is the springboard for interventions and programs that translate that knowledge into practice in clinics, homes, workplaces, and communities, all in service to individual and collective well-being.

Across time, in moments of personal and planetary stress, in rural and urban settings around the globe, people have sought artistic outlets to prevent or treat illness, express joy, soothe fear, ease grief, and build community. The oldest archeological discoveries reveal the longstanding human pursuit of self-expression and the most recent pandemic reminds us again that people turn to art in times of need. Now, scientists and artists are coming together to build a field based on a growing understanding of how the arts in all of its many modalities can advance health and wellbeing.

The goal of the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative is to change that, and ultimately to embed the arts into the fabric of mainstream medicine, public health, and more.

The time is right to build the field of neuroarts—defined as the study of how aesthetic experiences and the arts measurably change the brain, body, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into practices that advance health and wellbeing. Anchored in robust science, innovative arts practices, and cutting-edge technology, the work is advancing on multiple fronts, building capacity and generating broad professional and public enthusiasm for the field.

The endeavor is being led by the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative, a partnership between the Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics and the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine & Society Program. Established in 2019, the initiative is co-chaired by Renée Fleming, renowned soprano and arts advisor to the Kennedy Center, and Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, neuroscientist and dean of Academic and Scientific Affairs at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Susan Magsamen, MAS, executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, and Ruth J. Katz, JD, MPH, executive director of the Health, Medicine & Society Program, serve as co-directors. A 25-member Advisory Board, representing a deep bench of leaders engaged in neuroarts-related activities, contribute essential experience, wisdom, and personal and professional networks to drive the field’s development and growth.

Since its launch, the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative has operated at many levels to weave together a community of diverse stakeholders, including researchers across scientific fields; artists and arts practitioners in all disciplines; clinicians, patient advocates, and community activists; public health and education professionals; leaders in business, technology, and entertainment; architects and planners, policy makers and many others.

The NeuroArts Blueprint initiative also has helped to generate and share evidence that music, dance, visual arts, virtual reality, and numerous other art modalities can reduce disease symptoms, improve physical and emotional health, influence brain development, and foster educational achievements associated with health and wellbeing over a lifetime.
– NeuroArts Blueprint: Advancing the Science of Arts, Health, and Wellbeing : Neuroarts Resource Center