The celebrated Light and Space artist Laddie John Dill was born in Long Beach in 1943. He graduated with honors from Chouinard Art Institute in 1968. He has exhibited widely, including in venues from Seoul, Paris, Nogoya, and Helsinki, to New York, Kansas City, Seattle, and throughout Northern and Southern California. His work is owned by many private collectors and is included in the permanent collections of more than 25 museums. Dill is a recipient of two National Endowment grants, one for sculpture and one for painting, and has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has taught and lectured at UCLA, UC Irvine, Art Center in Pasadena, Otis Art Institute, and numerous universities and art institutions across the United States.

On November 9, 2015, approximately 2,500 solar lanterns illuminated on Main Beach at dusk with choreographed sequence of colored lasers, along with a soundtrack, that interacted with the rising tide and was visible from various vantage points on the beach and along the cliff.