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Carmel is set to unveil its newest attraction—a $2 million light projection performance called Palladiscope—on Thursday in the city’s Arts & Design District.
Twelve high-powered light projectors lined across the adjacent roofs of Booth Tarkington Civic Theater and The James Building will project a performance called “Eos: The First Dawn” onto the facade of the Palladium at the Center for Performing Arts.
Palladiscope shows lasting about 12 minutes will play every half-hour each night beginning at dusk and continue through 11 p.m.
Thursday’s festivities will begin at 8 p.m. with food and drink vendors on site. People will be able to view the “architectural cinema” performance at 9 p.m. outside the Palladium from the Carter Green.
Start times will adjust throughout the year to correspond with earlier or later sunsets.
Carmel Director of Redevelopment Henry Mestetsky described Palladiscope as a “movie-quality cinematography experience” that will be free for people to watch.
“You don’t have to be from Carmel,” Mestetsky told IBJ. “It’s not behind a paywall or ticketing system.”
Bloomington-based Blockhouse Productions produced the celestially themed “Eos: The First Dawn” using actors whose performances will be shown on the Palladium. The company created a 3-D scan of the Palladium to prepare production of the show.
“Eos: The First Dawn” tells the story of Eos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, and her two siblings Helios, the sun god, and Selene, the goddess of the moon.
“There’s really nothing like this anywhere. It’s pretty unique,” Mestetsky said. “It will bring more people to the area. It’s going to extend stays with people here. You can imagine someone saying, ‘Let’s go grab dinner and we’ll catch the 9 p.m. show.’”
The performance will be shown nightly through Nov. 14. The city is planning a holiday projection that will be shown Nov. 15 to Feb. 29.
“It really allows us to have all sorts of shows and theme them toward different times of the year and towards different holidays,” Mestetsky said.
The Carmel Redevelopment Commission provided $2 million in funding to install the lighting system for Palladiscope. Hamilton County Tourism contributed $100,000, which covered the cost of the film.
By comparison, the nightly “Shining a Light” projection show at Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis was funded with two five-year grants—one from Downtown Indy Inc. and another from the Indiana War Memorials Foundation—totaling $7.68 million.
In 2021, Carmel planned a $1.5 million light show on the city’s water tower. That plan was later dropped and the Carmel Redevelopment Commission approved funding in August 2022 for Palladicope’s equipment, installation and design.
“I think, really, the sky is the limit, but the Palladiscope concept, the mechanism for putting this out there, is going to be there permanently,” Metestsky said.
The $111 million Palladium, which opened in 2011, houses a 1,600-seat performance hall and is the main venue of the Center for the Performing Arts campus.
The fourth floor of the Palladium, known as the Gallery Level, also contains the Great American Songbook Gallery, the Great America Songbook Foundation’s offices and library, and the 1,400-square-foot Shiel Sexton Songbook Lounge.
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Will show TikTok videos?
I’m glad I don’t live nearby.
What a waste of taxpayers’ $2,000,000! All 12 people who showed up to view this.
Actually, there were hundreds in Carter Green viewing the first showing. Carter Green was very full as well as the surrounding sidewalks and roadways.