Every bright idea starts somewhere. In the case of The Bay Lights, it started right here, in the mind of our founder Ben Davis. One Saturday morning in September 2010 while he was sitting at the Ferry Building thinking about ways to honor the Bay Bridge’s upcoming 75th Anniversary, the light bulb went off: the bridge’s iconic West Span could become a giant canvas for light art.

Ben approached internationally renowned light artist Leo Villareal with the idea and began working with Caltrans on permits. Soon, a growing community of believers formed, with a passion for celebrating the hard-working and often overlooked Bay Bridge, allowing it to shine in our consciousness once more. It would become the world’s largest LED light sculpture: The Bay Lights.

In March 2013, The Bay Lights will be unveiled on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Eight times the scale of the Eiffel Tower’s 100th Anniversary lighting, The Bay Lights spans 1.8 miles, consisting of 25,000 energy-efficient white LEDs, individually designed and programmed, sparkling in an array of never-repeating designs each evening for two years.

Today, hundreds of people from private, non-profit civic and cultural organizations, as well as individuals, are actively and generously supporting this massive effort. Ben serves as chair of Illuminate the Arts, the non-profit formed to bring the project to life. “Impossible ideas become possible the moment enough people believe they can happen,” says Ben.

Thanks to a community of believers, this bright idea will shine on March 5, 2013.