Luminato Festival | |
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Location(s) | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Artistic director | Josephine Ridge |
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.
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. Followed by Jörn Weisbrodt, a German arts administrator and past Director of Robert Wilson's Watermill Center from September 2012 to June 2016. In July 2016, Josephine Ridge, former creative director of the Melbourne Festival and executive director of the Sydney Festival, was named Luminato’s new Artistic Director. She programs her first Luminato festival in 2017.
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.”