Graffiti goes Old Skool for the festival
When: 1st – 31st October 2013
Where: Scotland
£: Prices vary depending on the event, some events are free
What is it?
During October, Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing festival, will be hosting an amazing array of performances, events and activities. Dance, drama, music, visual arts and community events and projects will shine a light on our creativity as we age.
All over the country, every single day in October, community groups, cultural organisations, artists and performers will bring together audiences and participants from across the generations.
Mental illness and magic grass in Angus – Weaver of Grass
Luminate Director, Anne Gallacher, said: “Since Luminate launched last year, the increasingly enthusiastic response to the festival has been really inspiring. One of the great delights of my job is that I am constantly reminded that creativity has no age – from exciting new work by older artists to imaginative activities taking place in care homes; from individuals who have discovered new creative talents in later life to younger people inspired by their relationships with older family members. I hope that people across Scotland will enjoy the second Luminate programme, and I’m looking forward very much to an exciting month.”
Highlights of the 2013 festival include two commissions by Luminate. Live Music Now is a UK wide charity that provides performing and training opportunities to outstanding young professional musicians who take their performances to a wide range of community settings.
Bill Sweeney has been commissioned to create The Luminate Suite, based on music, poems and stories remembered and shared by older people from the Western Isles. During the festival, Live Music Now musicians will premiere the new song cycle for the older people who helped create it. The charity’s performers will also tour care homes and centres throughout Scotland as part of Luminate’s Outreach programme.
(Don’t) Mention Dementia immersive exhibition
Recount, the second Luminate commission, will incorporate three site-specific installations on Shetland. During the Cold War, the islands played an important role in NATO’s Early Warning System, hosting the most northerly Royal Observer Corps bunkers designed to operate as monitoring stations in the event of nuclear attack.
Contrary Life has also picked out the following highlights:
Old Skool, taking place from 21st October, is a community project to create a mural which will help regenerate an urban area. The mural aims to challenge preconceptions about Graffiti, often seen as vandalism done by the young.
Angus – Weaver of Grass by Horse and Bamboo is a story of lost traditions, mental illness and magical hats made of grass. It runs from 2nd October.
A play without words in Translunar Paradise
Couldn’t Care Less is a dark, surreal, funny and moving story of two women whose lives are disappearing. It deals with the issues of Alzheimer’s and the experiences of carers. It begins on 11th October.
(Don’t) Mention Dementia is an immersive exhibition of handwritten postcards and portrait pictures created to give a voice to people with dementia. You can see the exhibition on 24th October.
Translunar Paradise is a piece of theatre which uses movement and masks rather than words to tell the story of William and Rose.
More info: www.luminatescotland.org