Spectra 2016

Festival

11 Feb

Aberdeen City Centre
February 2016

Curated Place were appointed to lead the 2016 festival from concept to delivery, taking ambitious steps to significantly develop the event and its footprint creating a trail over four locations in the city centre. Featuring over 30 major public realm and gallery installations alongside new experimental works from Scotland's North East's creative community the festival enlivened and celebrated Aberdeen's creative past, present and future. Over 35,000 audiences engaged with playful and accessible light, sound and interactive installations during four nights, making the festival the largest cultural offer in the city.

Developed to feature prominently as part of the Scottish Year of Innovation Architecture and Design we worked closely with Event Scotland and Aberdeen City Council to deliver a programme of international artwork that was both ground-breaking and accessible. The spectacular, free to attend event delivered a series of major artworks with more than 80 artists participating in the festival delivery. We took ambitious steps with calculated risk to significantly develop the event offer - quadrupling the footprint over four outdoor city-centre sites.

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Awarded Festival of the Year at the Drum's Scottish Event Awards

We were also nominated for the Architectural Darc Awards as the Best Creative Lighting Event and for the The Drum Scottish Event Awards 2016 in the following categories: Cultural Event of the Year; Large Event of the Year; and Peoples Choice Awards.

Programme Development

Curated Place commissioned and managed a major projection mapping installation, a new festival app, a series of public and professional development workshops and more than 30 major new art works bringing together artists from Scotland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, France, England, Wales and the USA. The project brought together experienced light artists, technicians and composers enabling them to realise works of scale, as well as providing a platform for experimentation and professional development of established visual artists seeking to develop their practice into the realms of lighting and the public-realm.

Audience Engagment

The engagement and educational programme was developed and delivered in collaboration Seventeen, Aberdeen’s Creative Hub, Make Aberdeen, the Maritime Museum and local schools -ensuring ties to Aberdeen’s cultural heritage and strengths.

Marketing

Our team worked closely with the council’s marketing team to ensure the delivery of an engaging marketing strategy tying in with the overall thematic thrust of the festival. The festival was featured in national print and broadcast press including The Scotsman, BBC and Sky News.