Luminato

Luminato Festival
Location(s)	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Artistic director	Jörn Weisbrodt
Foundation	2007
Date(s)	10 days each June
Website
Luminato Festival Official Website

Luminato Festival, Toronto's Festival of Arts and Creativity, is an annual ten-day celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. Over the past nine years, the Festival has presented over 9,400 artists from 40 countries and has commissioned over 75 new works of art. Each year, Luminato Festival presents over 250 events – the majority of which are free – and reach over 800,000 Festival-goers locally and internationally.

History

Luminato was founded by Tony Gagliano, Executive chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications, and the late David Pecaut, CM Senior Partner at The Boston Consulting Group, in 2007. Luminato Festival works with a Festival Advisory Committee consisting of local arts leaders. Janice Price was Luminato’s first CEO and remained in this position until November 2014. Anthony Sargent was appointed CEO in May 2015. Chris Lorway was selected as Luminato Festival’s first Artistic Director, until 2011. In September 2011, Jörn Weisbrodt, a German arts administrator, was named Luminato’s new Artistic Director. Weisbrodt was the Director of Robert Wilson's Watermill Center.

Iteration	Dates	Highlights
10th	June 10–19, 2016	TBA
9th	June 19–28, 2015	Ontario premiere of Mariano Pensotti's El pasado es un animal grotesco Canadian premiere of Unsound Festival, an electronic music event World premiere of Contemporary Color, a pep rally pop music mashup conceived by David Byrne Canadian premiere of Malpaso Dance Company from Cuba World premiere of Blast Theory's My One Demand, an interactive film R. Murray Schafer's Apocalypsis, performed in full for the first time since it sworld premiere in 1980
8th	June 6–15, 2014	Toronto premiere of choreographer Pina Bausch's dance piece Kontakthof Canadian premiere of groundbreaking contemporary artist Matthew Barney's River of Fundament World Premiere of If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway, a show conceived and directed by American-Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway was also a Toronto WorldPride Major Partner Event, marking Luminato Festival's reputation for collaboration with other significant cultural celebrations and Festivals across the city.
7th	June 14–23, 2013	North American premiere of The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, a biography of the “godmother of performance art,” Marina Abramović, re-imagined by director Robert Wilson, at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts Bluma Appel Theatre.
6th	June 8–17, 2012	14 commissioned and co-commissioned new works, eight premieres, and over 270 events at 25 theatres, museums, parks and public spaces throughout Toronto 1093 participating artists, representing 20 different countries, including six Canadian provinces.
5th	June 10–19, 2011	400 mostly free events at 29 venues across Toronto Almost 1 million Festival-goers 750 Canadian and international artists from 28 countries
4th	June 11–20, 2010	Nine new commissioned and co-commissioned works North American premiere of Rufus Wainwright's Prima Donna World premiere of Volcano Theatre's The Africa Trilogy Five world premieres, four North American premieres, and one Canadian premiere North American debut of Syria's acclaimed dance company, Enana Dance Theatre 36 venues across the city, featuring artists representing 30 countries
3rd	June 5–14, 2009	Randy Bachman at Yonge-Dundas Square as part of the Luminato First Night event Performances by Goran Bregovic, a Brazilian Guitar Marathon and a tribute to Neil Young featuring the Cowboy Junkies; Holly Cole; Danny Michel; Steven Page; Carole Pope; Bill Frisell Trio; Issa (formerly Jane Siberry); Colin Linden; Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian); Harry Manx; Jason Collett; Sarah Slean and musical director Kevin Breit North American Premiere of Robert Lepage's nine-hour epic Lipsynch, which weaves together the stories of nine interconnected lives over the span of 70 years Canadian premiere of author Neil Gaiman's latest novel, The Graveyard Book at the Jane Mallett Theatre, moderated by Mark Askwith (Producer at CTV's SPACE) RedBall Project by artist Kurt Perschke. The 15-foot inflatable ball was placed in a new location each day of the festival.
2nd	June 6–15, 2008	1,400 local artists, 40 international arts managers and producers Attendance at ticketed events rose 11% from the first year's attendance numbers. Four world premiere events, and seven Canadian premiere events celebrating diversity and art Black Watch, The National Theatre of Scotland's theatrical piece by playwright Gregory Burke Director Tim Supple's international version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream presented by a company of 23 Indian and Sri Lankan dancers, street acrobats, martial arts experts, musicians and actors, performed in seven languages; English, Tamil, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, and Sanskrit. The Daily Mail (UK) described it as "Ravishing and enchanting. Supple's all-Indian production is a Dream as you've never seen it." Mikel Rouse's epic opera trilogy for the first time in repertory. The multi-media musical trilogy includes The End of Cinematics, a live video collage. In high contrast are Rouse's solo show Failing Kansas, a multi-media opera directly inspired by Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, and his talk show opera, Dennis Cleveland, a fusion of pop, rock and rhythmic structures.
1st	June 1–10, 2007	1,300 local and 214 international artists, over 30 venues across the downtown Toronto core. Over 1,035,000 attendees 10 world premiere events, including 6 commissioned or co-commissioned works: Book of Longing, VIDA!, Norman, Not the Messiah, Pulse Front, and Auroras/Testimony. Book of Longing, a music theatre piece using Leonard Cohen's poetry set to music by Philip Glass Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy), the comedic oratorio commissioned by Luminato, and written by Eric Idle & collaborator John Du Prez Pulse Front: Relational Architecture 12, a light installation produced by Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer situated at Toronto's harbourfront. The installation was dependent on audience participation, with 20 onsite handlebars linked to computers that transmitted the heart beats of those who touched them to one of 20 searchlights streaming above Harbourfront Centre, Toronto.

Funding

Luminato receives funding from sponsors, private donors, ticket sales, and various government agencies. In 2005, the Ontario Government committed $1 million in funding, which moved the project forward for the first festival. In 2008, the Ontario Government announced a series of strategic investments in the province's cultural industry. As part of that initiative, Luminato received $15 million, which was internally restricted by the board of directors towards commissioning future projects and securing first-performance rights from Canadian and international artists.

In 2007, L'Oréal was announced as Luminato's "exclusive presenting partner." This partnership has since been presented under the banner "Luminato /L'Oréal: Partners in Creativity.”