Illuminate SF

See Dazzling Light Art in Golden Gate Park

“Psychedelic Photosynthesis” is a colorful, illuminated, moving projection on the Conservatory of Flowers that harkens back to the Summer of Love in San Francisco. Developed in partnership with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the joyous installation compliments the endless parade of rare and unusual flowers on display inside the conservatory.

Lightscape is now delighting visitors in San Francisco Botanical Garden for the 2025 winter season, transforming the 55-acre Garden into an illuminated, after-dark experience through January 4, 2026. With more than one million lights, international artistic installations, water features, dazzling sculptures, and music along a one-mile walking trail, this immersive event—produced by the Gardens of Golden Gate Park in association with Sony Music and creatively produced by Culture Creative—has captivated more than 12 million people worldwide through acclaimed runs in London, Chicago, Melbourne, and New York, and now offers San Francisco a festive new holiday tradition. Lightscape will run for 33 nights with entry times every 15 minutes between 5:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m., including Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day, with select closure dates. Tickets start at $32 for adults, $20 for youth ages 5–17, free for children 4 and under, with discounts for Gardens members.

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James Turrell

Created specifically for the de Young’s Osher Sculpture Garden, “Three Gems” is a subterranean installation that features a view of the sky altered by LED lighting effects that highlights changing light and weather conditions outside. The sculpture is sited in a grass-covered hill. Visitors walk through a short tunnel cut into the hill, and then enter into a cylindrical space carved out of the hill. The retaining walls are white concrete and the floor is red stone. At the center of this cylindrical space is a rough-hewn, black basalt stupa form. Entering the round stupa through a door, viewers sit on a stone bench and view the sky through an oculus cut in the roof of the chamber.

Illuminate

The 120-year-old Spreckels Temple of Music Bandshell in Golden Gate Park was been upgraded with a new stage, built-in theatrical lighting and sound systems. Across from the SkyStar Observation Wheel on the Music Concourse, the Bandshell lights shine nightly from sunset to park closing.

Jim Campbell

“Ocean Mirror with Fragments” displays moving images of waves in the Pacific Ocean, recorded from a point directly west of the artwork, to create a mirror image. Set in the eastern end of a hidden outdoor courtyard, the artwork is a low-resolution LED display contained within a freestanding six-by-six-foot glass wall. Seven glass cubes scattered within the garden area also have LEDs in them, each synchronized to a different block of the display grid. The movement within and between these scattered glass cubes creates the effect of the ocean waves going beyond the display grid into the garden area.