Spectra 2017

Festival

9 Feb

Aberdeen City Centre
February 2017

Curated Place was thrilled to returned to Aberdeen to deliver Spectra 2017 over the weekend of 9th to the 12th of February. The festival was developed around the theme “A New Light”, celebrating the Scottish Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology. As per previous years the festival centred around Union Terrace Gardens but stretched over to the Kirk of St Nicholas, Seventeen and Marischal College. Over 30 original works were displayed, many of which created by artists who were showing in Scotland for the first time.

Building on the success of Spectra over the last 3 years we were thrilled to welcome over 65,000 guests to the 2017 festival which doubled in growth from the previous year. We believe this is down to the successful relationship we have with Aberdeen City Council who have been immensely supportive in letting us be a part of creating a long term vision for Cultural Activity and Events in the City.

Awarded Large Festival of the Year & Events Team of the Year at the Drum's Scottish Event Awards

We were also nominated for The Drum Scottish Event Awards 2017 in the following categories: Cultural Event of the Year; & Festival of the Year.

Programme Development

In 2017 we returned and expanded the site to four locations to accommodate the growing audiences, managing all aspects of creative and logistic delivery. We increased the number of architectural installations delivering laser shows, building-covering projection mapping and facial capture interactives across the city. Showcasing 26 works, piloting a music stage within the festival and launching a conference we grew audiences to 64,000 and won the Large Event of the Year and Event Team of the Year at the Scottish Event Awards.

Outreach

As part of Spectra 2017 we collaborated with Jenny Dockett, an experienced arts educator to work with school children from across the city. Around 400 pupils from 10 primary schools took part in workshops with the work of the children being displayed as part of the festival. This created an opportunity for the children and their families to feel part of the festival and furthermore a part of their city.

Catalyst Conference

As part of our plans for growth in 2017 we hosted a conference and invited artists, designers, academics, architects, business leaders and social entrepreneurs to come together with our international partners to identify ways to develop the cultural economy in Aberdeen. The extremely successful conference took place over 2 days in the beautiful Anatomy Rooms and was attended by over 100 delegates and speakers. We wanted to encourage activities let by action, not papers, interspersed with entertainment and where people could come together, not just visualising collaborations but creating them