Luminara Florescu
Luminara Florescu is a British born artist, curator and artist mentor based in rural Somerset. Her art practice occupies the intersection of art, advocacy, and activism and is deeply rooted in her lived experience as a disabled and neurodivergent artist. After graduating from Kingston University with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 1999 she continued to live and exhibit in London including creating short films for Channel 4 with her film Home Town being selected by the British Film Council to represent emerging British artists in Milan. Her limited edition artist book, Noble Offerings is also part of the Artists Books collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
After becoming a mother in 2001, Luminara lived in Cardiff, South Wales. In 2005, her film script Penny Collectors was awarded a Production Grant by the Welsh Film Council and was produced by Those People Productions. The film was shown at the Welsh Film Festival in 2005 and won the Best New Director award. After taking a career break due to caring responsibilities, Luminara returned to her art practice in 2018 securing a Somerset Art Works, Creative Pathways Artist Bursary. Intricately weaving diverse processes and mediums, Luminara began creating immersive and interactive artworks that aimed to captivate and challenge. Embracing gentle protest and creative activism, she works with themes of rest, slowing down, and resisting hyper-productivity as vital tools in the fight against climate change.
Luminara is the co-founder and leads the pioneering Art Behind Bars programme in partnership with Shepton Mallet Prison. This initiative not only redefines art's role outside of the white walls of the gallery environment, but also serves as a platform for emerging artists' voices to be heard through exhibitions such as B-Wing (2019), Artist Prison Residencies (2021), and Outside In (2022). Luminara has been awarded a number of grants and commissions to develop projects including the Freedom Learning project (Somerset Art Works, Artist Micro Commission), And the Children Shall Lead- Giant Board Game (Somerset Art Works, Artist Project Development Bursary), B-Wing exhibition (Arts Council England Project Grant), Contract of Self Care (a-n Artist Information Company's Time, Space, Money artist bursary), Rest As Protest (Develop Your Creative Practice (DYCP) Grant.) and most recently the Somerset Film, Artist in Residence film commission for her film installation – Social Gardening (The Mind At Rest).
