Looking Up Snapshot Gallery
Help Inspire Illuminate 2026!
Have you ever stopped and looked up while walking through Boston?
For Illuminate 2026, we’re asking the community to help uncover the hidden details that make Boston such a special place.
This year’s parade theme, Looking Up, celebrates the sculptures, carvings, decorative features and architectural details that adorn buildings across the town. Some are centuries old, while others are surprisingly modern. Many are hidden in plain sight.
We’d love you to explore Boston with fresh eyes and share your discoveries.
Photo submissions are open from 1 August to 31 August 2026.
During August, we’re collecting photographs of Boston’s hidden architectural treasures. Your discoveries could help inspire the designs for this year’s Illuminate Parade artworks and be featured on our website.
What Are We Looking for?
You might spot:
- Carved faces in stonework
- Decorative brickwork or architectural features
- Weather vanes and rooftop ornaments
- Wooden carvings and foliage details
- Sculptures and public artworks
- Historic building details
- Modern decorative features
- Hidden gems you’ve noticed around town
Whether it’s medieval, Victorian, contemporary or something in between, we’d love to see it.
How to Take Part
Please submit your photographs by 11:59pm on 31 August 2026.
- Explore Boston and look up.
- Take a photograph of an interesting detail.
- Tell us where you found it or add a short description. And what name you’d like to be credited as.
- Submit your image by emailing us on transported@lincoln.ac.uk or sending us a DM on social media or completing our Contact Us form with the subject title ‘Looking Up’ Photo Submission
The photographs submitted will form our Looking Up Snapshot Gallery and help inspire the designs for the lanterns, puppets, costumes and creative activities that will feature in this year’s Illuminate Parade, created by lead artist Ruth Pigott and her cohort of talented associate artists.
Photographs will be vetted before they are uploaded to ensure they are appropriate and an acceptable quality for website display.
Why Get Involved
By sharing your discoveries, you’ll be helping to celebrate Boston’s unique heritage while contributing to one of the town’s most anticipated community events.
Together, we’ll create a visual collection of the details, stories and artistic features that make Boston’s skyline and streetscape so distinctive.
About Illuminate
Illuminate is Transported’s annual winter lantern parade in Boston. Each year, the event explores a different aspect of the town’s heritage through community creativity, large-scale artwork and public celebration.
FUNDING
The Illuminate Parade and bespoke artwork creations are made possible through funding from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, delivered by Transported and supported by Boston Borough Council and the South & East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership StoryTellers NPO programme.
Image Submission Consent
By submitting photographs to the Looking Up Snapshot Gallery, you confirm that you are the photographer or have permission from the photographer to share the images with Transported.
You grant Transported, hosted by the University of Lincoln, permission to use your submitted photographs for purposes connected with the Illuminate Parade and related promotional activities. This may include use on Transported’s website, social media channels, printed materials, exhibitions, reports to funders and other marketing or publicity materials.
You retain ownership of your photographs at all times.
Any personal data submitted through your photo submission will be processed by Transported solely for the administration of this project and in accordance with the University of Lincoln’s Privacy Policy: https://online.lincoln.ac.uk/privacy-policy/
For enquiries, please contact: transported@lincoln.ac.uk