The Bay Lights first came on in 2013. Jean-Pierre Conte had already given to it the year before.
Illuminate, the nonprofit behind the artwork, called Conte “a key funder of the original Bay Lights in 2012” in a February 2026 announcement. He was also among the donors who paid for its return.
2013: First Light
Leo Villareal’s light sculpture went up on the western span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in March 2013. About 25,000 bulbs were strung along the bridge’s cables, according to KQED.
For a decade it ran every night. That span links San Francisco to Yerba Buena Island.
J-P Conte’s gift had come the year before, while the original project was still being paid for.
2023: Dark
Wind and salt air wore the hardware down. So did constant vibration. Bulbs could no longer be repaired at a reasonable cost, according to ABC7, and the installation was switched off in March 2023.
Illuminate set out to replace it, and an $11 million campaign was launched for a new system and paid for entirely by private donors, although only a little over $51,000 had been raised when the lights went off, the nonprofit said.
2026: The Return
Private donors carried the campaign the rest of the way. Jean-Pierre Conte gave again, Illuminate said, alongside more than 1,300 other contributors. Illuminate had announced the relighting date about a month before.
On March 20, 2026, the western span lit up again. Its new lights cover the same stretch the original lit for a decade. Illuminate’s announcement had described Conte as one of many earlier supporters who stepped in again for the new version.
The New System
Forty-eight thousand LEDs were installed, each built by Musco Lighting for the bridge’s wind and salt air.
Illuminate said the work runs every night from dusk until dawn, along 1.8 miles of the bridge’s northern cable plane.
A Long-Term Supporter
Conte is the founder and managing partner of his family office, Lupine Crest Capital, and has spent decades in private equity. The J-P Conte Family Foundation, his family’s foundation, is based in San Francisco and has also supported SEO Scholars and 10,000 Degrees. He sits on the advisory board of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity San Francisco.
Support should last beyond a single gift, he has written. That point came in a column on wildfire preparedness in Colorado, where Lupine Crest Capital is based. J-P Conte told business leaders in an August 2025 Forbes Business Council column to “remain an involved community member.”