LUMA CREATIONS

• Aiming to Inspire and Support
• To Create and Develop
• To Showcase and Collaborate
• To Engage and Consult
• Celebrating, Promoting, Producing
• Latin American and Diversity Arts and Artists

LUMA CREATIONS aka OLC Productions is an Arts & Cultural Organisation promoting Latin American and Diversity Arts and Artists. The organisation produces and annual programme of events, performances, festivals and projects and is ever present in a range of national festivals and carnivals.

LUMA CREATIONS works with diverse communities and is led by a diverse team of professionals from Latin America, India and the UK with a long track record of working in professional and community settings, both locally and internationally.

LUMA CREATIONS aims to promote and celebrate Latin American and Diversity Arts & Culture, by working with a range of partners in the arts & culture community, commercial and educational sectors. We deliver festivals, large scale events artist led initiatives, workshops and arts projects.

LUMA CREATIONS links with groups from diverse backgrounds, using the arts as a focus of activity and participation; enabling appreciation and understanding of different cultures with artists, participants and audiences. OLC consistently creates a platform for artists and connects them to it’s annual programme, national and international networks and local communities, by celebrating, sharing and educating about diverse arts, artists and community; OLC aspires to enable people to link with each other and the wider community.

HISTORY

BEFORE ONE LATIN CULTURE

Before there was One Latin Culture, there was All Things Latin. ATL became an organisation in 2003; the aim of the company was to promote the Latin American experience in the UK, its culture and its community. Throughout its life, ATL delivered seven Latin American Festivals (Fiesta Latina) and developed an ongoing programme of work with the Latin American youth and its community; producing a Latin American carnival troupe, performances, projects and ongoing events. ATL was also a producing company and delivered performances in festivals and Carnivals across the UK.

Throughout this period, ATL delivered workshops and projects to hundreds of schools in the North West of England introducing Latin American culture, Carnival drumming, dance and music. In addition, it produced an exciting innovative programme of teaching Spanish through Latin American culture in partnership with Knowsley Arts Services and Sure Start, and was featured at the international conference for early years education as one of only two case studies for good practice and innovation.

In 2007 ATL took on a project to develop the first Latin American Cultural Centre without any funding, and successfully developed the centre until it had to close in 2010 due to the economic downturn. EL Rincon Latino delivered dance classes, cultural events promotinghtt Latin American culture including live music sessions, film shows, dance events, traditional food, festival events, family days, workshops, seminars and conferences. It was the home for the Liverpool Spanish Circle and promoted a range of cultural events, both for the Latin American community and for & by many other communities.

As the organisation developed it began to deliver many projects including the CHESTER CARNIVAL OF GIANTS in 2011 and then the Re-Launch of Castle Street in Liverpool with an exciting Fiesta Latina. In 2013 we began to run drum workshops for women, from our small workshop office in Hope Street. This became our longest running project, becoming La BOMBA Women’s Drum Project. In 2016 we received 3yr Elevate funding from Arts Council England and this enabled us to grow and begin to look forward and consider our long term future. 

Soon after we re-branded as LUMA CREATIONS. (LUMA is a sacred tree in the South of South America with some communities referring to it as the Tree of Life as it has medicinal properties).

The pandemic was a difficult period for the organisation (as it was for everyone), however the team stood strong and delivered some of our most inspiring work to date. We received some additional funding from various sources and ensured our volunteers, participants and as many people as we could, would have something to be involved in. We worked with communities to support people who were isolated, shielding or vulnerable in any way, delivered an online festival and produced ongoing programmes.

We have received funding from both the Big Lottery Fund and the Heritage Lotteries and in 2020 we received Without Walls funding from Culture Liverpool to deliver our new and updated LA FERIA using outdoor venues to ensure the safety of the team, artists, participants and audiences.