Light entertainment

Bob Handelman

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For four consecutive nights in April, an art installation called Night Rainbow/Global Rainbow New Haven lit the New Haven sky, kicking off the celebration of the city’s 375th birthday. Six colored laser beams, created by artist Yvette Mattern, shone from the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the summit of East Rock Park. Easily recognizable as a rainbow to those at the foot of East Rock, the beams merged into glowing blue lines as they passed over Yale, the New Haven Green, Interstate 95, and West Haven, and faded to a last ember of light over Long Island Sound. Over the last four years, Mattern’s Global Rainbow installations have shed their light in New York City and various European cities.