How a very grassroots event grew into Scottsdale's signature Canal Convergence

It was a big weekend in Old Town Scottsdale, where the Dreamy Draw Music Festival drew thousands and one of Scottsdale’s signature arts events — Canal Convergence — kicked off on the waterfront.

Canal Convergence continues for 10 nights through, featuring arts installations full of lights, flames and interactivity — and even a giant, old fashioned TV this year. 

It’s an event that’s been going on since 2008, when Scottsdale Arts held its first event at the canal. Back then, it was dubbed Night Lights. And, Wendy Raisanen told The Show, it was very grassroots. But today, it’s far from it.

Raisanen is the curator of collections and exhibitions for Scottsdale Public Art was there when it all began.

Full conversation

WENDY RAISANEN: You know, it was right after the 2008 crash and the city of Scottsdale wanted us to, you know, somehow activate the canal banks near the towers, as they call them. And the south side of the canal wasn't developed at all. So we were mostly just figuring out a way to do something fun there.

We got local artists, sculptors from the community colleges, from Tucson, and even some of our staff had gone to Burning Man, and found somebody to come. So it was very grassroots. We were just, like, drawing with colored lights and a long exposure camera and making — somebody made a sculpture with lights and clear tape, like a body.

And it was just, like, real small and kind of low tech, compared to what's going on now.

LAUREN GILGER: Compared to what's going on now, for sure, the technology has changed. It was called, like, Night Lights or Get Lit, something like that.

RAISANEN: Yeah, it was called Night Lights on the Canal, but we had these shirts that said "get lit with Scottsdale," so it was a little, like, racy, but we thought it was hilarious.

GILGER: Yeah, and playing with artwork in that way, which is — it was kind of new to do something like that at the time; not just the lights, right, which have become so big in art right now, but the idea of doing something interactive.

RAISANEN: Right, interactive. You know, I'm finding that, even then, the digital world, the engagement world is all on your computer, and the value of engaging with human beings and exchanging energy with them and just, like, facial expressions and, you know, just like, "let's play!" — it just feels fun. And it's definitely, I feel like still obviously something everybody needs to experience.

GILGER: Yeah. OK, so let's talk about the evolution of this because, if you're talking about what this looked like and the grassroots origins of this, you know, more than a decade ago, it looks very different today. This is a big event on the canal there in Old Town Scottsdale. Tons of people come out.

You bring in artists from all over the world. How did it get this big?

RAISANEN: Well, we just ... actually, we got more support and budget from the city of Scottsdale and the visitors bureau, and they wanted to turn it into a 10-day event rather than just on a weekend, and so we were able to bring in all these artists.

I was, like, really excited about — very proud to be able to say, "and these artists are from Russia, or from Europe," or, you know, it was just like, "yeah, we're here doing this really amazing thing and other people in the world want to get involved, and here's, like ... it's for you, you know, it's for everybody."

GILGER: Yeah. Tell us about some of your favorites over the years. Like, are there installations, exhibits that have been part of Canal Convergence that really stand out to you?

RAISANEN: Yeah, yeah, several. I mean, over the years there's so many. One of my favorites, and I still get people who ask me about, you know, "could we get those guys back who had the floating fish in the air that were lit up and they were dancing?" It was just — they were amazing. They were these translucent fabric fish filled with helium and they had these dancers who had them, like, on poles. And it was just magical. It was like you were underwater, but these floating fish were happening.

And then, let's see ... a few years ago, MASARY Studios brought in these light-up, plastic cubes that everybody could play with on the bridge, like stack them, and make bridges and make piles, and they would light up with music and the kids loved them.

Everybody loves this stuff.

GILGER: There's also always, like, a pyrotechnics thing nowadays, right? Like there's something on the canal that's burning.

RAISANEN: Yeah, yeah. The Walter Studios folks, who are local, they always do a fire show. And that is one of the most popular things. When I'm at the info booth, nine times out of 10, that's the question: "When's the fire show?"

GILGER: Yeah. So I think one of the things that's really interesting about looking at Canal Convergence, you know, from a big picture lens, is how many of these ideas that you started with, whether it's you doing interactive art or light-centric art, or even just like art that people can take a selfie in front of, which is such a thing now, those ideas are all everywhere now.

Do you feel like you guys were on the cutting edge?

RAISANEN: I really do. The reason is that when we started out early on — and even getting, like, the bigger artists and the international artists, it was exciting, and they were excited — we could easily afford these artists.

And now that this type of art and light show is happening all over the world, I mean, they have them everywhere, they can charge more money. And it's like, "Oh, well, we started you out, man. Can you give us a little break here?" But they're more expensive.

GILGER: Little bit of a catch 22 there, but that's interesting.

It sounds like you've inspired a lot of events like this in other cities. People call you and say, "How do you do this? How do we start?"

RAISANEN: Yeah, we've had, sort of, city leaders from various places. One in particular, Breckenridge, Colorado, came out a few years ago, and they came to the event, and that's usually what happens: They'll come out and experience it and meet the artists, and then, you know, the following year, they're doing their own. Yeah.

GILGER: It's cool. I wonder, you said something earlier that I want to hit on again, because I think it's really key here, especially in our kind of technology-centric world.

You talked about just bringing people together in a physical place, right? And doing something physical, like interacting with the art with your hands, which doesn't happen as much today, I feel like. Why do you think that's important?

RAISANEN: We're human beings. We're social creatures. We need it. I just feel like it's a biological need. It's not something you can escape. It's part of being human.

GILGER: Yeah. It's interesting because, like, when you think of art today, especially, like, it's rare, I think, that the conversation is not political or, like, divisive. So much of our rhetoric is about that and so much of, I think, what art does is comment on that kind of dialogue, that discourse, which I think has hit Scottsdale as well.

Do you feel like you can do that today? You can have an art show that is sort of only bringing people together?

RAISANEN: I think that's what we're trying to do. There's plenty of opportunity for biting commentary on the state of our world in art. But the fact that what we want to do is to bring people together, we sort of try and keep it in that lane.

GILGER: So you're kind of trying to stay away from the political, in this realm at least?

RAISANEN: Yeah, I think we do.

GILGER: Is there pressure in the art world in general right now? And you're an artist yourself, we should say, like to, I guess, comply to sort of either stay away from those things or downplay DEI-type things because of the administration we're under?

RAISANEN: Wow, that is a fantastic question. I think it just depends on where an artist is in their career and who's funding them. But as far as censoring and stuff, we really try not to be affected by that.

GILGER: Yeah.

RAISANEN: It's a bad slope to be heading down, I think.

GILGER: Right.

RAISANEN: I feel like this type of experience could be a point of coming together and healing.

GILGER: We'll leave it there. That is Wendy Raisanen, curator of collections and exhibitions for Scottsdale Public Art, joining us. Wendy, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

RAISANEN: Thank you.

If you go

What: Canal Convergence.
When: Nov. 7-16.
Where: The Scottsdale Waterfront, in and above the Arizona Canal.
More info: https://scottsdalearts.org/explore-scottsdale-arts/canal-convergence/