The Luminous Community Center is an ambitious and socially engaged public art vision by Los Angeles artist Nikolas Soren Goodich. Envisioned as an open-air architectural glass pavilion and designed to travel from city to city, the project seeks to redefine the purpose of public space in the 21st century. More than an artwork, it is a temporary community center built from luminous glass, inviting people to gather, reflect, and imagine new possibilities for unity, healing, and social transformation.
Inspired by the idea that contemporary society lacks monuments celebrating love, solidarity, and community, the Luminous Community Center proposes a new kind of public landmark. It creates a shared environment where individuals can reconnect with one another, engage in collective creativity, and participate in building a better and more inclusive future.
A Monumental Traveling Public Art Installation
The Luminous Community Center, or LCC, is conceived as a monumental architectural structure made entirely of luminous glass walls, doors, and ceiling panels. It functions simultaneously as a sculpture, a temporary public building, a multi-use event space, and a traveling community center for the world.
This open-air pavilion is designed to be installed in cities across the globe, allowing the work to reach diverse populations and create a shared cultural experience across different communities. As it travels, the LCC becomes a platform for local engagement, fostering dialogue, collaboration, and creative exchange.
Debut and Future Installations
The Luminous Community Center is set to make its spectacular debut in South Central Los Angeles on May 1, 2028. This initial installation will introduce the public to Goodich’s luminous vision, creating a radiant gathering space for community reflection, conversation, and creativity. Following its debut, the pavilion will travel to Washington, D.C., where it will be hosted during 2029 and 2030, offering the nation’s capital a unique opportunity to experience this transformative public artwork.
In 2030 through 2031, the LCC is planned to be installed in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, one of New York City’s most beloved public spaces. Each location is carefully selected for its cultural significance, community engagement potential, and capacity to foster dialogue and connection among diverse audiences. The traveling nature of the LCC ensures that its luminous energy, inclusive design, and social impact reach multiple cities, inspiring communities across the country.
The realization of these plans is a milestone in public art, demonstrating that a visionary concept can be both monumental and mobile. The LCC is not only happening it is actively reshaping how communities interact with art, space, and one another.
The Language of Light and Color
Goodich’s artistic process is rooted in techniques he has developed over three decades. Each glass and plexiglass panel is created through a combination of monoprinting, painting, and kiln-firing. Layer upon layer of glass paint and acrylic paint produces radiant, polychromatic surfaces. When these panels are stacked together, they reveal a symphony of shifting colors: pale limes, olive greens, golden ochres, burnt sienna, vivid reds, oranges, guava tones, and sky blues.
During the day, sunlight passes through the multi-layered glass, illuminating the interior with soft, shifting hues. At night, embedded LED lighting transforms the pavilion into a glowing beacon, radiating color and light from within. Visitors experience a sense of immersion inside a luminous, breathing environment, filled with reflection, refraction, and organic, abstract movement.
Symbolic Portraits of a Shared Humanity
The visual language of the LCC centers on large abstracted, mirrored profile portraits installed on twelve monumental panels, each fifteen by fifteen feet. Some faces look toward one another while others turn away, creating dynamic relational compositions. The ceiling panels also feature layered portraits arranged into symmetrical and asymmetrical forms reminiscent of wings, seeds, nervous systems, and celestial structures.
The portraits are fluid in identity. They do not specify race, gender, or age, allowing viewers from all backgrounds to see aspects of themselves within the work. This inclusive approach reflects Goodich’s interest in shared humanity and interconnectedness. The Luminous Community Center becomes a place where everyone is represented, and where notions of identity expand into a collective visual narrative.
Why the LCC Matters Now
Communities around the world are navigating political tension, historical trauma, and complex social issues. People who seek healing and progress often lack spaces designed for reflection, conversation, and cooperation. The Luminous Community Center responds directly to this global need.
The project is not intended as a final answer to societal challenges. Instead, it offers a welcoming environment where people can gather, share ideas, and build meaningful connections. It encourages solidarity across differences, emphasizing that community building is an ongoing, active process.
By creating a shared artistic space, the LCC supports the co-creation of stronger neighborhoods and more resilient cities. It becomes a platform where diverse groups can meet, listen, and imagine common futures.
A Multi-Use Space Activated by Communities
At its core, the LCC is designed to be used by the people who inhabit each city it visits. It can host a wide range of activities, including community meetings, workshops, performances, talks, exhibitions, educational programs, and cultural gatherings. The artwork is complete only when communities activate it through engagement.
To ensure accessibility, the project includes the New Community Center Community Connection Programming Fund. This fund will subsidize at least half of all events and support local organizers who may otherwise lack space for their projects. Public and private partners, city and state resources, and community sponsors will help sustain the LCC’s programming as it travels.
Expanding Access Through Digital Tools
A digital Luminous Community Center App and website will accompany the physical installation. These platforms will help bridge digital divides, allowing individuals and groups to submit event proposals, participate in discussions, and share their experiences. As a result, the project can extend its impact beyond its physical location and maintain ongoing connections between communities worldwide.
Sustainability and Solar-Powered Design
Environmental responsibility is a central value of the LCC. The installation will be powered by a dedicated solar energy array built using environmentally friendly practices. Solar panels and batteries will operate the LED lighting and other technical components, ensuring that the pavilion runs independently and sustainably.
Green building principles will guide all stages of planning and construction. The project prioritizes recycled and up-cycled materials, sustainably sourced resources, and partnerships with vendors committed to environmental stewardship. The goal is to create a visually stunning artwork with a minimal carbon footprint.
The Civic and Economic Value of Public Art
Public art has proven economic, cultural, and civic benefits. Large-scale public installations attract visitors, stimulate local economies, reduce crime, and enhance communal identity. Projects such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s The Gates, Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfall, and Chicago’s Cloud Gate demonstrate the transformative potential of placemaking artworks.
Studies show that well-integrated public art increases tourism, supports local businesses, and builds civic pride. With its iconic illuminated design and traveling presence, the LCC has the potential to be a global placemaking landmark that brings substantial cultural and economic value to every location it visits.
About the Artist: Nikolas Soren Goodich
Nikolas Soren Goodich is a biracial Black and Jewish artist from Los Angeles with a deeply multicultural family history. His lineage includes a preacher descended from enslaved ancestors in Alabama and a Jewish grandfather who escaped pogroms in Kyiv in 1910. These histories inform his lifelong exploration of identity, justice, and healing.
Goodich has lived and worked across the United States and abroad, studying at renowned institutions including the Rhode Island School of Design, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received his BFA in painting and printmaking.
His artistic practice merges portraiture, abstraction, social justice, critical theory, linguistics, neuroscience, and consciousness studies. He has delivered a TEDx talk at the MIT Media Lab and exhibited at the Museum of Art and History (MOAH) in California, which published a catalog on his work. His artworks are represented by galleries in Los Angeles and The Hague and are held in private collections worldwide.
The Team Behind the Luminous Community Center
The LCC is supported by an accomplished team of experts, including Development and Fundraising Lead Richard T. Robertson, a highly respected figure in public service, media, and philanthropy. Global Curatorial Advisor Marisa Caichiolo brings extensive experience organizing exhibitions and biennials around the world, shaping the project’s cultural and educational programming.
Architects Danny MacNelly and Adam Ruffin, partners at ARCHITECTUREFIRM, contribute decades of expertise designing award-winning cultural buildings, museum spaces, and artist-driven projects. Their firm is known for creating environments infused with art, history, and light, making them ideal collaborators for a project of this scale.
Conclusion
The Luminous Community Center is more than a public art installation. It is a visionary proposal for a new kind of shared space: one that celebrates community, encourages reflection, and inspires collective transformation. By combining luminous architecture, inclusive portraiture, sustainable design, and a global traveling format, the LCC aims to become a beacon of hope and creativity in cities around the world.
Rooted in Goodich’s belief in the power of art to reshape society, the project invites every community it visits to imagine what a better, more connected future could look like and to begin building it together.
