Luminara will sparkle in September!

Press Release July 14, 2010

Who: You and your neighbours
What: Luminara workshops, neighbourhood illumination and local events
When: Leading up to and throughout the week of September 18 to 25
Where: In your neighbourhood

A new neighbourhood based lantern celebration is starting to take root in Victoria!

Community centres and groups are joining together to host a constellation of small local events to keep the Luminara tradition sparkling. This year, from North Park to Fernwood to Fairfield to James Bay, look for community lantern-making workshops in the weeks leading up to the festival. Come and learn how to build your own lantern to carry through your neighbourhood, or an installation to light up your front yard, balcony or window.

During the week of illuminated celebrations from September 18 to 25, take a walk around your neighbourhood with family and friends to see the local lantern art and meet your neighbours. Local celebrations will be part of the festivities, with Luminara costumes and music. Interactive community maps will be posted in the four pilot neighbourhoods this year, for local residents to mark their lantern installations. Next year your neighbourhood could be on the Luminara map too! Check our website for ways to get involved.

“We have to start small this year,” said Luminara Festival Director Karin Scarth. “This is a big change, and we want to lay a good foundation for the festival to build sustainably over time. We’re working with a much smaller budget than we have ever had before but there is a fantastic community of creative people who love Luminara and want to see the tradition continue, and that commitment is the most valuable resource.”

The Luminara website http://www.icavictoria.org/luminara will have up to date information on times and locations for workshops, events and how to make safe and creative lanterns to light up your neighbourhood.

Contact:
Karin Scarth
Luminara Festival Director
250-388-4728 ext 129 cell: 250-208-3821
kscarthicavictoria [dot] org

Fisgard Lighthouse 150th Anniversary Celebrations

This Friday June 11, ICA is helping the Fisgard Lighthouse celebrate its 150th anniversary with Luminara style lantern installations and musical entertainment by Victoria's favourite Gypsy marching band Bucan Bucan and fire-spinning by the fabulous Poi Pixies - Fyre & Lyte!

For more information, please click here for our latest newsletter.

Luminara on the Map – A week of neighbourhood illumination

Press Release June 7, 2010

A new form is emerging for the Luminara Lantern Festival tradition in Victoria, following community consultations in February and March 2010. Without funding this year to produce the large scale, one night event that it has been in the past ten years, Luminara organizers and supporters are looking to a more wide-spread, neighbourhood based celebration in the week of September 18th – 25th.

“We’ve been meeting with community centres, cultural groups and individuals who really care about Luminara, and the enthusiasm to try something new has been wonderful. We envision it as a quieter event in a way, closer to home and more available for children and families. Of course there will also be moments of the traditional Luminara hoopla and excitement!” said Luminara Festival Director Karin Scarth.

Local community centres will host lantern-making sessions for children and adults. Instructions and materials for simple lanterns to carry and also workshops for more complex installations will be offered. People will be encouraged to make a lantern or display to decorate their own house, yard, balcony or window for the week. Community centres will have neighbourhood maps where participants can add their location, creating a map of lights that people can go out and see in their own area. Depending on funding, plans also include the creation of a travelling Luminara procession including costumed characters and musicians that will animate different neighbourhoods on special nights through the week.

The Inter-Cultural Association has continued to search for funding for this popular event, after finding last year that several significant funders would be unable to continue. New funding cuts, one as recently as late May, have meant that plans for the year will have to be modular, with additions and revisions according to the level of funding that is confirmed. Funding confirmations may not come in until as late as September in some cases.

“We hope people will understand that this is a transition year, not only in the format of the event but in what we are able to fund,” said ICA Executive Director Jean McRae. “People from all over Greater Victoria have enjoyed the event as it has been for the past ten years, and we hope that will translate into a willingness to give the festival time to evolve into a new tradition. We need to start small. This first year holds a lot of unknowns for us with the uncertainty around funding, but we are committed to working toward a community celebration that is inclusive, sustainable and inspiring.”

Community workshops are planned so far in the neighbourhoods of James Bay and Fairfield, with central map locations in these areas. Many more groups and neighbourhoods are interested in being involved and plans are still being discussed. Processional events are planned for around the city, more details on times and places coming soon!

Contact:
Karin Scarth, Luminara Festival Director
250-388-4728 ext 129 cell 250-208-3821
kscarthicavictoria [dot] org

Press release from December 2009

Transformation on the way for Luminara 2010
VICTORIA, BC, CANADA (December 8, 2009)

Faced with recent news of funding cuts and timing changes from major sponsors and funders, planning for Luminara 2010 has taken a new turn. Festival staff at the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA) have confirmed that the annual festival will not be possible in the form it has taken for the past ten years. The challenging financial climate presents an opportunity to recreate the Luminara tradition in a way that is more inclusive, participatory and responsive to local concerns.

“We’ve been extremely fortunate over the last ten years to have had very supportive local sponsors, but we’re now feeling the effects of the broader economy on the organizations which have been able to support the festival in the past.” said Jean McRae, ICA Executive Director. “Despite the sudden mid-festival rainstorm, Luminara 2009 did well financially, incurring just a small deficit. Based on that, we were prepared to go ahead with planning as usual for 2010, but over the past few months we’ve seen almost half of our potential funding either disappear or the timelines have been pushed back to the point where we won’t be able to access funds in time for a July festival.”

Given the reality that Luminara will not be able to afford the annual July festival in Beacon Hill Park, festival organizers have been going back to basics – the roots of community celebration. “We’re very interested in how Luminara can be more strongly based on a community arts approach to celebration.” said Karin Scarth, Luminara Festival Director. “We want to establish a new, diverse, inclusive, neighbourhood-based, economically and logistically sustainable foundation for the Luminara Lantern Festival tradition in Victoria. We don’t know exactly what it will be yet, and it’s hard to lose the festival that we have had all these years. But it’s exciting that the new form will come out of engaging with the social ecology of the community.”

Plans for September to November 2010 include community celebration research and capacity building, through creative workshops and meetings in community centres, working with diverse cultural groups to create new celebrations of traditional festivals, and local neighbourhood lantern processions. Workshops and meetings will have the familiar creative sparkle and glow, led by community artists as part of the Luminara team.

ICA is grateful to sponsors, volunteers, community for making Luminara the great event it has been for the past ten years. We look forward to working with all who care about the festival to find new and sustainable ways to keep the tradition alive, and will be holding planning sessions in the new year.

Please contact Karin Scarth at ICA for more information, 250-3884728 ext 129 or kscarthicavictoria [dot] org