About Us

Luminate, Scotland's creative ageing festival, celebrates our creative lives as we age.  Launched in 2012, Luminate is supported by Creative Scotland, the Baring Foundation and Age Scotland.

Luminate includes new work, collaborations and international projects specially planned and programmed for the festival, as well as independently-run projects led by a wide range of cultural and community organisations. There is growing evidence of the importance of creative activities to our wellbeing as we age, and Luminate wants to shine a light on the many opportunities that exist across Scotland.

In addition to the public programme, Luminate includes Outreach activities which take the festival to care homes, sheltered housing communities and local groups across the country.

If Luminate has one message, it’s that creativity has no age. Our inaugural programme in 2012 stretched from the Borders to Shetland, and included a 70+ ladies rock band from Finland – all of whom learned to play their instruments after they retired; dance performances choreographed and performed by older people’s dance groups in Edinburgh and Glasgow; an exhibition of visual art by Perth U3A; and printmaking workshops for groups of older people in and around Inverness. This is only a tiny glimpse of a nationwide programme that was rich in variety, and you will find many more examples by searching on the Events page.

Planning is now well underway for Luminate 2013, so please sign up for our e-newsletters to keep in touch with plans for this October and beyond. In May we will once again invite applications from groups and organisations who would like to be part of Luminate, and we hope we will reach even more people than we were able to reach in 2012.