The Portland Winter Light Festival is a program of Nightlab. It is a community-centered, family-friendly festival that brings hundreds of thousands of people together through light-based art while supporting cultural and economic vitality during the winter.
Nightlab, formerly Willamette Light Brigade, is a Portland-based nonprofit that advances nighttime placemaking through light-based art. For more than four decades, the organization has shaped how Portland experiences itself after dark, bringing together art, community, and infrastructure to reveal the beauty, connection, and possibility of the city at night.
Nightlab’s programs include the Portland Winter Light Festival, the Morrison Bridge Lighting Program, the Illuminate Bridge City initiative, and the Light-Based Public Art Program. Together, these efforts reflect a shared belief that light-based art can help create better cities at night. It can create joy, foster belonging, support artists, inspire civic pride, and contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of the city.
Board of Directors
Officers
Zach Suchara, Board Chair, Photon Lighting Design
Don Carlson, Treasurer
Jarrett Altman, Secretary, Neighborhood Works Realty
Marianne Zarkin, Past Chair, MZLA
Directors at Large
Damian Crowder, NAMC Oregon
Robert Hastings, Bridge Lighting Chair, Oregon, By Design
Chelsea McCann, Walker Macy
Art Pearce, Portland Bureau of Transportation
Chelsea Rooklyn, Development Chair, Killian Pacific
Jeff Schnabel, Portland State University
Staff and Consultants
Alisha Sullivan, Executive Director
Cari Sánchez-Potter, Deputy Director
Chris Herring, Creative Director
Misty Post, Artistic Director
Therese Gietler, Communications Director
Gray Ayer, Digital Technologist
Kaycia Ogata, Graphic Design
11th-ANNUAL IMPACT REPORT
The 2026 Impact Report captures our largest and most ambitious Festival yet. Despite the rain, the incredible turnout reaffirmed Portland’s appetite for light, art, and play. This year’s Festival brought more artists and installations than ever before, proving that creativity thrives no matter the weather.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, & INCLUSION STATEMENT
Nightlab is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion as essential components of the organization and its related programming.
Equity is the pursuit of equal outcomes, a goal Nightlab can only achieve by identifying barriers to inclusion and creating an environment welcoming to all through intentional actions.
Nightlab recognizes that people of color and other communities continue to be marginalized and excluded intentionally and unintentionally due to systemic racism and bias. We are committed to fostering an environment of belonging and acceptance by implementing policies/procedures responsive to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, ability (physical and neurological), religion, and other individual identities for all staff, Board members, and community volunteers.
We are committed to being a non-discriminatory organization and providing equal opportunities for employment, volunteering, Board service, and advancement in all areas of our work. Our commitment to place-making through lighting and the arts is to be shared by all segments of the Greater Portland community.
