Luminate Festival 2012

Luminate’s first creative ageing festival took place between 1st and 31st October 2012 – a brand new cross arts festival celebrating our creative lives as we age.

It featured over 320 dance, drama and music performances, film screenings, literary events and exhibitions, stretching from the Scottish Borders to Shetland.

Events included both professional and non-professional artists, and participants ranged from 9 to 90 years-old.

Programme highlights:

• Ultra Violet from Barrowland Ballet at Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling – a commission that drew together 20 individuals aged from 3 to 63 through dance, to share their view of ageing.

• Unusual Places to Dance from Tricky Hat Theatre Company, who brought together a group of older people from Cumbernauld to tell their stories through music, dance and digital art.

• Alastair Gray: Short Stories at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.  A reading by one of Scotland’s greatest artists of his short stories relating to ageing.
• Riskiryhmä, a 70+ women’s rock band from Helsinki, Finland.  All had learned to play their instruments after they retired.  Their memorable gig at Howden Park Arts Centre, Livingston, was followed by workshops with older people in partnership with Drake Music Scotland.
• Big Sheep Symposium at the Community Centre in Helmsdale, Sutherland, celebrating the work of renowned film-maker Margaret Tait.
• Bird Yarns landed in the Lighthouse Centre in Glasgow.  Hundreds of knitted Arctic terns were created by knitters in Mull and across the UK, working with textile artist Deirdre Nelson.  Part of Cape Farewell’s Sea Change programme.
• It’s Only Words, a rehearsed reading of a play by Sylvia Dow starring the late Edith MacArthur.  Presented at Perth Theatre in partnership with Stellar Quines and Greyscale.
• Pop up Craft Café, run by Impact Arts in Age Scotland’s Bathgate shop.
• I See You, performed by Belgian dance company Kabinet K at Tramway in Glasgow.  Each part of this piece was performed by a child, an older person and one of the choreographers.
• Victoria Hall of Fame, an exhibition of contemporary portraits of older people from Cromarty, woven with photographs depicting their younger lives.  Presented by the Highland Print Studio in Inverness.
• A poetry slam in Edinburgh embracing Scotland’s vibrant poetry scene.
• Our Outreach programme featured creative activities with care home residents, including a residency in care homes in Aberdeen by Spare Tyre Theatre Company.

Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing festival, ran between 2012 and 2019.