The Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artists from over 40 countries and has commissioned over 80 new works of art.

History

Luminato was founded in 2007 by Tony Gagliano, executive chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications, and the late David Pecaut, CM, senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group.

People

Janice Price was Luminato's first CEO and remained in this position until November 2014. Anthony Sargent was appointed CEO in May 2015 and Celia Smith took over the role in 2020. Chris Lorway was the festival's first artistic director, from 2007 until 2011, and was followed by Jörn Weisbrodt, a German arts administrator and past director of Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, who held the role 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, staying until 2018. Naomi Campbell, who joined the festival as company manager in 2011 and was appointed its first-ever deputy artistic director in 2013, was named artistic director in September 2018. Campbell held the role until 2023.

Editions to date

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."