Sept 28

Lesley MacLean in collaboration with Iain Beairsto, Julia Peck, Bree Jennex and Cass Boutilier

Lesley MacLean (they/she) is an AuDHD artist with over 10 years of choreography, teaching and performance experience. They have choreographed and performed in numerous productions on the Island with Painted Dance Collective, Savoy Theatre and Highland Arts Theatre. Her work is centred around creating safe spaces for artists to explore and honour exactly who they are.

OVERLOAD

Artist Project

OVERLOAD is a multidisciplinary installation exploring the sensory experiences of neurodivergent people by portraying the differences between masked and unmasked expression. The work uses visuals and soundscapes to explore stigma, societal expectations and how we are forced to hide who we are in order to be accepted and fit in.

*The artist acknowledges the limitations of this work as every neurodivergent experience is different.

Lumiere Arts Festival 2024 // The Art of Caring

Lumiere Arts Festival invites artists and community members to reflect on the concept of care.

In a polarized landscape, care can lap like a brook, or pound like large waves crashing ashore. To care is to tend, to root, to rebel, to share and to endure. This year, the festival is encouraging artists to submit works rooted in solidarity, with community building as resistance, that explores the need to care for ourselves, others, and the earth, both locally and globally. The Lumiere Arts Festival makes space for joy, contemporary art, and meaningful dialogue.

Land Acknowledgement

Lumière Arts Festival, on behalf of the board, the artists, and the communities we represent, acknowledges that we work, live and play in the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people, in Unama’ki Cape Breton, who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial.

We are grateful not only for the strong and ongoing stewardship of these lands we call home, but also for the stories, music, and art that Mi’kmaq people continue to create and share, carrying ancestral voices, sacred teachings, and legacies of interconnectedness and resilience forward into the present and on to the future.

We aspire to reflect that sense of connection between past and present in our festival. We are inspired by L’nu artists to foster connection and self-reflection in our work. We will work to ensure that art is accessible, inclusive, and integrated into public spaces so that we can share our collective stories, recognizing the challenges of our past and imagining brighter futures.

We are all Treaty people.