Celebrating 10 years of creative ageing

Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing organisation, were delighted to present their Creative Ageing Awards at a parliamentary reception as part of their 10th anniversary celebrations at the end of last year.

The charity’s 10th birthday was an opportunity to bring together the many people and organisations who have supported Luminate through the years, from artists to care organisations. They drew inspiration from the nominees in their Creative Ageing Awards, who together demonstrated that creative ageing in Scotland is a rich and varied sector. The awards celebrated people and projects across Scotland that are part of our creative culture, and who make such a huge difference to so many lives through their talent, inventiveness and heart.

Christina McKelvie, minister for equalities and older people, presented the six awards.

Huge congratulations to all involved, the winners were:

• Outstanding older artist - Willy Gilder

• Arts in older people’s healthcare - Claire Weddle

• Celebrating diversity - George Tah

• Social care and creativity - Felt Fine

• Pioneering creative project - Red Road Young ‘Uns

• Jill Knox Inspiration Award - Patricia Melville-Mason

Fishwives art makes waves

In the past 10 years, Luminate has supported many creative projects, including collaborating with a Dunbar community group on a UK-wide project to create a banner marking 100 years of women’s suffrage.

The Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group worked with Scottish artist Fiona Hermse to create a banner celebrating the fishwives and herring girls of Dunbar and the wider region.

The completed work was part of a project called PROCESSIONS which saw women and girls marching with their banners in the four UK capital cities in 2018. The banner was on display in an exhibition in London but returned to Dunbar library in January.

Anne Gallacher, director at Luminate, said “We were thrilled to be invited by Artichoke to work with a community group to create a banner for the Scottish strand of PROCESSIONS back in 2018. We really enjoyed collaborating with the Dunbar Dementia Carers Support Group and Fiona Hermse, and the resulting banner is really striking.”

The banner, created using spray dye, silk painting, mono printing, embroidery, and pompom techniques incorporates a quote by Frances Wright, 19th century Scottish abolitionist and feminist: “Equality is the soul of liberty; there is, in fact, no liberty without it.” visit www.luminatescotland.org