The 210/214 Main Street Alley Just Got Brighter
Hackensack, NJ – August 18, 2025 – Downtown Hackensack just got a whole lot brighter – literally! The Main Street Business Alliance (MSBA), in partnership with the Northern NJ Community Foundation (NNJCF) and Monocle Group, proudly announces the debut of “Luminous Passage: Night Migration,” a stunning site-specific light installation by multimedia artist Ann LePore. Installed in the alleyway between 210 and 214 Main Street, this first-of-its-kind artwork marks a new milestone in Creative Placemaking in Bergen County.
Unlike anything else in the area, this immersive installation is only visible at night, transforming a once-overlooked alley into an awe-inspiring corridor of light, art, and storytelling.
“When we first started talking about activating the 210/214 alley with Monocle Group’s Eric Benitez, we knew it had the potential to be so much more than a static mural,” said John T. Peters, Executive Director of the MSBA. “We wanted something truly special to kick off what will become an evolving Art Alley, and when Danielle suggested Ann LePore’s work, it all clicked. This installation is the perfect fusion of creativity, technology, and local history – it invites people to slow down, look up, and experience Main Street in a completely new way.”
Luminous Passage: Night Migration is not just visually stunning, it’s deeply meaningful. The work uses real scientific data from sources including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and NOAA, cross-referenced with local bird counts, to visualize the nighttime migration paths of Neotropical birds who call the Hackensack region home. The piece celebrates movement, connection, and cooperation both in nature and in community.
“Community-centered public art transforms ordinary spaces into places of meaning. It brings people together, sparks conversation, and creates shared experiences. Luminous Passage: Night Migration is a prime example. It converts a hidden alleyway into a stage of light and story rooted in Hackensack’s own history and terrain, inviting people to gather, interact, and experience the familiar in a fresh, new way” said Danielle De Laurentis, Associate Director of the NNJCF.
Once Ann LePore was selected by the MSBA and NNJCF, she quickly came up with the idea of a night migration of birds. It was then that the project was born and started moving forward. By night, the alleyway comes alive, bringing visitors face-to-face with illuminated bird silhouettes and abstract light compositions that dance across walls and surfaces.
“Custom public art installations like this are no small feat,” said Ann LePore, the artist behind the work. “It takes time, testing, and a whole team of dedicated supporters who believe in the vision. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with MSBA, Arts Bergen, and Monocle Group, who never stopped cheering this project forward.”
Monocle Group, owners of both buildings and the alley, served as integral partners in bringing this project to life.
“We see this as part of our long-term commitment to Hackensack’s revitalization,” said Eric Benitez, Founder and Principal of Monocle Group. “By investing in creative placemaking through public-private collaboration, we’re helping build a stronger sense of community, support local businesses, and enhance the city’s growing reputation as a destination for culture and connection.”
About the work
Luminous Passage: Night Migration is a site-specific light installation that uses data visualization in an imaginative way. Publicly available statistics from Cornell’s Ornithology Lab, NOAA and other sources were cross-referenced with a citizen-science bird count for the Hackensack region in order to select the species to be represented in this artwork. Each of these birds migrates primarily at night, is Neotropic- meaning they migrate between our region and either Central or South America, and participates in interspecies flocking behavior during winter. Their identification silhouettes are represented in a cut-paper style, referencing a pre-photography, light-dependent way of capturing images. The composition uses patterns that suggest interspecies cooperation.
Flight is commonly used as a symbol of freedom- perhaps for very real reasons. What does it mean to be mobile? To have mobility? This artistic representation of data is an allegory for what we can accomplish when we work together to share ourselves, our history, and our knowledge globally.
About Ann LePore – Artist’s Bio
Ann LePore is a multimedia artist who creates works that are heavily influenced by her experiences as a champion of science, and as a seeker of secret landscapes. Her processes include projection mapping, animation, printmaking, installation, and data visualization. She uses familiar symbols in unfamiliar contexts to imagine new social landscapes.
LePore has exhibited with e-Flux and Serpentine Gallery, London, and has also shown her work in New York, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Moscow, Granada, and Art Basel Switzerland. Much of her research has been completed during artist residencies including at Frank Lloyd Wright’s home, Taliesin, and aboard the research vessel Sea Wolf. LePore received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts and is currently a Professor of 3D Design and Animation at Ramapo College of New Jersey. For more on Ann LePore, visit annlepore.com
Made possible with funds from the Bergen County Division of Cultural & Historic Affairs, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
About the Main Street Business Alliance
The Main Street Business Alliance (MSBA) is a public/private partnership formed between the business community on Main Street and the city of Hackensack. The MSBA’s mission is to address the issues facing the business community on Main Street, with the goal of improving the local economy and the overall business climate. For more information, visit www.DowntownHackensack.org
About the Northern NJ Community Foundation
The NNJCF is a non-profit organization based in Hackensack, NJ with a mission to foster collaboration and improve community life through three focus areas: the environment, arts and culture, and promoting places of belonging and opportunity. By answering the question, “What can we do together that we can’t do alone?” NNJCF and its ArtsBergen initiative addresses critical issues in the region by using creative placemaking to shape the physical, cultural, and economic identity of communities. As the only organization in North Jersey offering services in creative placemaking and public art, and as a lead producer of public art in the area, ArtsBergen partners with municipalities to develop public art works and placemaking projects that are relevant and meaningful to the communities it serves. For more information, visit: https://www.nnjcf.org/artsbergen/
About the Monocle Group
Monocle Group magnifies value for investors through smart investments in real estate. We buy, finance, develop, and operate medium to large assets and generate fixed-income returns. For more information, visit https://www.monocle-group.com/
