Art Lights London was set up by Susie Allen and Nicola Hyde in 2006 and was given full charity status in 2010. Its aims were to provide a platform to commission high calibre outdoor artist light installations for London.
For the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, Art Lights London commissioned artist Ron Haselden to create two temporary outdoor installations.
The works, Diver and Basketball, are animated LED light installations and were the result of a collaboration between the artist and 600 London primary school children who participated in a series of specially conceived, artist-led drawing workshops around health and sport. Both works formed part of the GAMES art project for the London 2012 Olympiad with the goal of offering everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspiring creativity across all forms of culture, especially amongst young people.
Both artworks use an animation effect created by lighting each stage of movement in the sequence. Diver, located at Diespeker Wharf in London, was unveiled by British Olympic diver Peter Waterfield and depicts a child making a splash as they dive into the water. Basketball, at St. Mary's Hospital London, is a fun and lively addition to the Paddington Basin depicting a girl jumping into the air to score a basketball hoop. Basketball was launched with a demonstration by the London Greenhouse Pioneers, a Westminster-based teen basketball club, and the lights were switched on by the first Englishman ever to have played in the NBA, former Lakers player Steve Bucknall.
From 2017-2020 Art Lights London was the charitable partner of The Line.