GLEAM 2021 (Olbrich Gardens), Madison, WI

This event is an annual, outdoor, visual arts installation at the well-known gardens in Madison. Artists from all over the world submit their ideas and then a handful or so are chosen for each late summer/fall season. It runs nightly (after dark) on W, Th, F and Sa through the end of October. Tickets are relatively inexpensive ($15 for an adult with no other Olbrich Gardens membership already). Seeing the artwork is easily worth that price.

You can start the event off with a stop to a small but well-stocked bar, garb a drink, and then take a leisurely 30-60 minute stroll through the exhibits. Tickets are good for 1.5 hours of access, they have multiple "waves" of people throughout the night. I'm much quicker than most people and only spent about 40 minutes there. I also skipped one exhibit, #5 below. I could see it from afar, but didn't want to wait in line to "experience" it as it was in their real-live pagoda and an extra 10-15 minute wait (with kids screaming and some sort of noise being played on a "BIG" floor-sized keyboard on the floor of the installation - nah).

They have most of the walking path roped off or highlighted in some manner, so it's a pretty simple way to get around all the bright lights amidst the darkened sidewalks. You can also scan a QR-code for a very simple map and info on each exhibit, which I will use below.

This is their greenhouse that is always lit up, all year. From the outside it looks like a bit of a spaceship and you can't really miss it, even just driving by...

This is the first visual item after the bar... kind of hard to miss most of them... but not actually part of the show formally, perhaps an amuse bouche for your eyeballs... (I really liked it)

On the way to the pagoda, you have to walk over a small inlet and get to see some cool views on this bridge...

I feel the the Gardens makes a point of always putting something extra in the path, and this seemed like a perfect thing for kids to do on the way b/w the exhibits. They had black lights showering the sidewalk and markers ready for people to doodle with... very much sidewalk chalk drawing at night. Kind of simple really, but visually striking and fun...

This was the last one of the night and the end of the journey. Once here, it was a very short walk back through their main building and back out in to the dark. I've now done this twice, and if you can't tell for yourself, this is 100% worth it.