Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing festival is now in its third year. It is already an important element in Scotland’s events calendar following the outstanding success of the past two festivals. From Wednesday 1 to Friday 31 October 2014 it will host an amazing array of performances, events and activities that shine a light on our creativity as we age.
In addition to events in the public programme, Luminate includes Outreach activities and performances that take the festival into care homes, sheltered housing communities and local groups across the country throughout October. This year’s wide ranging programme will again embrace the length and breadth of Scotland hosting dance, drama, music, visual arts and outreach events that celebrate creativity, share stories, and explore what ageing means to all of us.
Luminate Director, Anne Gallacher, said: “In its third year, Luminate is now reaching more communities than ever before, with events extending from Stranraer to North Uist and from Hawick to Lerwick. …Luminate shows that creativity has no age, and our programme offers something for everyone – ....”
Major performances of the festival include a tour of Love Letters Straight from Your Heart by Uninvited Guests, an event that is somewhere between a wedding reception, a wake and a radio dedication show – so let’s raise our glasses! Also touring is Let Me Stay, a tender and unique exploration of Alzheimer’s by Julie McNamara who shares a lifetime of love as seen through the eyes of her mother. At Summerhall audiences are invited to engage with the intriguing and uncrowned Queen of 1950s Soho in Still Life: An Audience with Henrietta Moraes, created and performed by Sue MacLaine, and taking the form of a life drawing class. Vanishing Point’s Tomorrow at Tramway is also part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, and John Byrne’s new version of Colquhoun and MacBryde will be at the Tron Theatre as part of Glasgay!
Dance continues to play an important role in the Luminate programme. J O U R N E Y, created by Belgian choreographer Koen De Preter features two dancers who bridge the gap between young and old. Performed at Woodend Barn, J O U R N E Y is also part of DanceLive. Company Chordelia’s Dance Derby tells the story of the dance marathons of 1930s American depression, directed and choreographed by Kally Lloyd-Jones; and grande-dame of anarchic dance Liz Aggiss is The English Channel can be seen at the Lemon Tree.
The work of older community performers is also showcased during Luminate. In The Kingdom That Danced, devised by the Fife Performance Ensemble is an ancient tale for the modern world, directed by Alan Lyddiard and written by Stuart Paterson. And don’t miss Luminate favourites 24 Carat Gold in Flights of Fancy at Dance Base. At macrobert arts centre You Said You Liked Dancing is the second part of a series of art works created by Janice Parker, working with people with dementia and their carers at Town Break Stirling, and in Dundee older people from Deaflinks working with Solar Bear Theatre Company will perform their new production A Guid Blether at the Bonar Hall.
There are also opportunities for people to join in, including an Indian dance workshop Utsavam with Dance Ihayami, which is accessible to everyone. You can indulge in nostalgia with tea dances at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Falkirk Town Hall and the Aros Centre on Skye. In the outreach programme, All or Nothing Aerial Dance Theatre will give dancers from Scottish Ballet’s Regenerate a chance to fly in Light as a Feather.
The spoken word is a major element of this year’s festival around Scotland, with events from Sutherland in partnership with the Portskerra International Storytelling Festival, to Feis an Linn gu Linn: Generations, a bilingual event in Lochmaddy in North Uist. Near Inverness, Writing Your Life at Moniack Mhor Writers Centre is a creative writing workshop exploring ways of recording your life, and in Dundee join poet Paula Jennings as she reads from her forthcoming collection Under a Spell Place: Voicing Dementia.
In visual arts, Colin Gray: a journey with his parents through love, life and death is a selection of works documenting his 34-year collaborative journey with his parents, and includes a preview of new work from Do Us Part and talks at North Edinburgh Arts Centre and Stills. Peerie Boxes in Shetland is an exhibition of trinket boxes collected by 80-year-old Laura, and curated by artists Clair Adlington and Kristi Tait. In Glasgow, A Place to Sit is an exhibition at CCA of textiles by people diagnosed with dementia working with artist Deirdre Nelson, and in Livingston, It’s the People that Make the Place is an intergenerational art project working in mixed media.
The 2014Luminate festival is packed with music. Celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2014/15, Live Music Now Scotland take their performances to a wide range of community settings, and this year musicians Flutes en Route, Knox and Ion, Kristen Harvey and Tina Rees, Emily Mitchell and Geoffrey Tanti, Jemma Brown and Maryam Sherhan will once again bring Luminate into the heart of communities with a series of concerts and outreach events. There are opportunities to try singing in a group in Pollok and Motherwell, perform at an Open Mic Night at the Glad Café in Glasgow, or attend a series of organ concerts in Ayr. And in our outreach programme, inspirational choir leader Stephen Deazley will lead groups of older people in Falkirk in a singing project that will culminate in a sharing at the Town Hall.
The 2014 Luminate film highlights include the UK premiere at Perth Concert Hall of Alive Inside, presented in partnership with the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, which follows the story of social worker Dan Cohen as he fights a broken healthcare system in the USA to demonstrate the power of music over memory loss. Alive Inside will screen around Scotland after its premiere. Other touring films include Leo McCarey’s 1937 classic Make Way for Tomorrow; two documentaries - Advanced Style and The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life; and Love is Strange, in which, after 39 years together, Ben and George take advantage of the new laws and tie the knot - but all is not what it seems.
This exciting and innovative Festival is supported by Creative Scotland, The Baring Foundation and Age Scotland. For full programme listings or to download a copy of theLuminate brochure visit www.luminatescotland.org