Interactive Light Exhibit Brightens Up Nation's Capital for Holidays

— -- Washington, D.C., is marking the holiday season with an outdoor exhibit of interactive lights called Georgetown GLOW.

All throughout Georgetown and on the city's waterfront along the Potomac River, eight pieces of interactive artwork are brightening up the historic, cobblestone neighborhood with LED and neon lights.

The display is inspired by the historic architecture in Georgetown and local natural resources such as the canal, Deirdre MacWilliams, the exhibition’s curator, told ABC News.

“Georgetown is a magical place, especially during the holidays, and it’s not like any other place in D.C.," MacWilliams said. "Hopefully people will see that the illuminated artworks play up on that.”

The exhibit -- which was inspired by the “Fete Lumiere,” or Festival of Lights, in Lyon, France -- features the work of both local and foreign artists from Baltimore to Shanghai and Dubai.

The illuminating artwork is also interactive, MacWilliams said.

In one installation called "On the Wings of Freedom," for example, LED-lit butterflies change colors.

Another installation, "Prismatica," is positioned to face the Potomac; it has 25 “pivoting prisms,” each with a halogen light. Viewers can go up to the prisms and spin them.

Other interactive pieces in the exhibit include a seesaw called “Teetering x Tottering (On the Brink)” and another called “Resonant Stacks” that lets viewers sing or hum into microphones installed within the structures to create different tones.

When the annual exhibition began three years ago, it ran 10 nights. This year it is up for a month, from Dec. 2 to Jan. 1. Every night, GLOW's lights go on at 6 p.m. and turn off at 10 p.m.

Other events planned in connection with the exhibition are a Silent Disco on Saturday, Dec. 10, and a bike ride exploring each of the light installations on Wednesday, Dec. 14.

Watch the ABC News video below for a tour of Georgetown GLOW.

ABC News' Misha Wee contributed to this report.