Lumo Workshop is the collaboration of theatre designer-maker Lou Jones, visual artist Nadya Monfrinoli and an amazing pool of artists and venues across disciplines that support the work they do.
They are passionate about maintaining the variety of the work they make and pride themselves on an attention to detail that creates engaging and immersive experiences for their audiences. Lumo Workshop devise community engagement that is accessible, challenging and rewarding.
We asked Lumo Workshop three questions based around the festival theme:
What does the theme ‘Connection’ mean to you/your practice?
“As an organisation engaged in social practice, connection is central to how we approach our work. We are motivated by making connections between communities through involvement in the arts.”
Frequency Festival is celebrating its 10 year anniversary, where were you 10 years ago (creatively speaking)?
“We hadn’t formed Lumo Workshop ten years ago. Each of us having young families at the time, our creative focus was very much on work with new parents and those with very young children to encourage their involvement in the arts from a very young age. It was the beginning of our focus on working locally, through necessity as well as through identifying a need and opportunities on our doorsteps.”
How do you hope the arts build back better after the pandemic?
“It is clear that the arts have sustained us throughout the pandemic despite being one of the hardest hit. The Arts have shown incredible resilience and adaptability against all the odds. It is for the government now to nurture this essential sector so that all artists are given the tools to do what they do best.”
Visit Birchwood Connections page for more about the creative workshops in the lead up to Frequency and the digital artwork that will be showing on Cornhill and Birchwood during the festival.
Lou and Nadya’s work often involves members of the public taking part, to create a beautiful collaborative piece with community at its core; here’s what some of those people had to say:
“It has been amazing!!! Thank you so much for bringing the magic back in to our usual lives!!!”
“Just wanted to say how well thought out and imaginative it was, enjoyed by us all”
“It’s so lovely to be part [of] what has been a community collaboration. Thank you for such a lovely, positive thing you have done for the community.”
