History

Pulse Front: Relational Architecture 12 by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. 2007 Luminato festival.

Luminato, Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity, was born out of the cultural and creative energy of the city of Toronto.

In 2003, Tony Gagliano, Executive Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications and a Board member of the AGO, was inspired by the cultural infrastructure being built in Toronto, and saw an unprecedented opportunity to cast the city in a new light – to its citizens and to the world. At the same time, David Pecaut, Senior Partner at the Boston Consulting Group and Chair of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, had concluded from his civic work that the arts were one of the most powerful means available to engage the many immigrant cultures converging in Toronto in a common project of city building. The two passionate city builders joined together and Luminato is the result of that partnership.

They shared the vision of a Festival that would reflect the authentic richness of the arts in Toronto, would take its vitality from the diversity of the city’s cultural communities, and would touch all residents while also inspiring visitors from around the globe to come to Toronto to experience Luminato.

Gagliano and Pecaut met with local and national leaders of the artistic community to solicit their ideas and shape a vision that would truly reflect the talents and aspirations of the community. Their input helped defined three “pillars” which would anchor the festival programming: Collaboration, Accessibility, and Diversity. Many of these arts partners would take on a producing role for Festival events.

Tony Gagliano and David Pecaut met with hundreds of community leaders, senior executives, government leaders, and members of the artistic community to share the Festival idea with them and to ask for their input and support. Many people immediately recognized the promise within this vision and stepped up to support Luminato in various ways. Out of these supporters, nearly 30 extraordinary private donors and corporations became Luminato’s Founding Luminaries. Those Luminary patrons, now grown to 50 in number, provided the early and visionary support that helped turn the Festival from a vision into a reality.

In December 2005, the Ontario Government became Luminato’s founding government partner by committing seed funding that enabled the project to move forward. That same month, Lucille Joseph became Interim Director, with the role of creating the operating organization and planning for the Festival’s debut.

Contributions of pro bono services and financial support from organizations such as the Toronto City Summit Alliance, Stikeman Elliott LLP, The Boston Consulting Group, CIBC, MacLaren McCann and Searchlight Recruitment, enabled the start-up funds to be dedicated to the securing of programming.

The CEO Search Committee selected Janice Price, a Toronto-born senior arts administrator to be Luminato’s CEO. With her hiring, all the planning and fundraising initiatives came together, and in July 2006, at a press conference in Toronto, Luminato was announced to the world.

The Board of Directors was finalized and on January 27, 2007, the Festival achieved registered charitable status from the Canada Revenue Agency. In February 2007, L’Oréal made a multiyear commitment as Luminato’s lead sponsor and “Partner in Creativity”.

On June 1, 2007, the first Luminato event was launched with Pulse Front: Relational Architecture 12, a light installation commissioned from Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Festival supporters gathered along the harbourfront to witness the city skyline illuminated by the heart beats of the audience. Over four years in the making, Luminato was ready to be unveiled to Toronto and the world.

Luminato has become one of the preeminent arts festivals in North America, having commissioned over 50 new works of art, and featured 6,500 artists from 35+ countries.