🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 6 - 12 November 2024
🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 6 - 12 November 2024
Traverse theatre warning, Summerhall update, artists’ Gaza fundraiser, Take One Action film campaign, new EIF jobs + how local creatives are resisting AI
Welcome to the 65th edition of the Culture Minute, a weekly round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs, funding and opportunities. The Culture Minute exists thanks to paying subscribers. If I’ve missed anything please get in touch.
The most-viewed links from last week’s Edinburgh Culture Minute:
📚 Edinburgh’s Radical Book Fair programme. (21-24 Nov)
💰 The team behind the Traverse Theatre say it’s 'almost impossible' to make new plays due to Scotland’s arts funding crisis. They say they’re struggling to programme more than six months ahead, reports Brian Ferguson in The Scotsman.
🎭 The future of Summerhall as an arts centre remains in limbo while the venue’s sale and a court case rumble on. Fergus Morgan of The Crush Bar looks into the saga, saying:
“What a mess. What a tragedy. Fingers crossed common sense prevails. There is such a thing as a hierarchy of creditors when a company is liquidated, an order in which people owed money get paid. It seems obvious to me that artists should be first in line. The whole house of cards was built on the back of their work after all. But who knows what will happen?”
🎨 On Friday Fruitmarket Gallery will host a discussion event titled ‘Me, Myself and AI’, looking at the impacts of AI-generated art. On the panel will be artists Josie KO, Morgan McTiernan and Rosalind Main in a discussion about artists who use their own image, identity and digital influence to alter, challenge and highlight the subject of autonomy and self expression through beauty routines and rituals. The event will ask:
“The recent rise in AI generated art has raised concerns amongst artists. How are artists resisting AI? What will self expression and autonomy look like in the future? What will happen to artists as AI is seen to provide easy and quick results?”
⮑ Free tickets are here.
⮑ Fruitmarket has also announced the line-up of 12 designers, makers, and artists to be showcased in its Future Makers programme. As a criteria of entry, all artists had to prove sustainable and community-minded principles behind their work. - The gallery published more details here.
🎨 Embassy Gallery on Broughton Street Lane will host an ‘Artists for Gaza’ fundraiser on Sunday from noon to 5pm. All money raised in a silent auction and raffle will go directly to families in Gaza. More than 60 artists have donated a range of artworks, from paintings and prints to ceramics and sculptures. Also available: artists’ books and zines, plus online workshops covering poetry, project development and making short films. - Thanks to Owen O'Leary for sharing this.
🏆 This year’s Creative Edinburgh Awards ceremony is on Friday 15 November at Central Hall in Tollcross. Tickets are moving quickly but some are still available here. Hundreds of nominations have been whittled down to 33 finalists. The Edinburgh Minute is a proud sponsor of one of the awards. Ola Wojtkiewicz, Executive Director, Creative Edinburgh said:
“We are honoured to be hosting the twelfth annual Creative Edinburgh Awards. This year has been one of the most challenging years for Scotland’s creative industries and we've seen first-hand the need for additional support, guidance and much-needed moments of unity and joy. Freelancers, arts venues, and grassroots communities form the backbone of our city’s cultural sector, and the Awards is dedicated to recognising their resilience and extraordinary achievements.”
🎥 Scottish storytelling film collective Take One Action has launched a crowd-funder for its 2025 community festivals. In return for donations, rewards include music from Alloysious Massaquoi of Young Fathers, a lunch and Q&A with screenwriter Paul Laverty and more. - See the full list of rewards here. The group says:
“At a time when hope feels more needed than ever, our festivals will explore the idea of real utopias; tangible seeds of a better future already growing in our communities. We are decentralising film programming by collaborating with grassroots groups in Edinburgh and together we’ll design and film events that address local concerns and catalyse lasting change. Your support will help us ensure accessibility for all, pay artists fairly and welcome underserved communities.”
⮑ Find out more about their plans here.
📝 Letters handwritten by Robert Louis Stevenson will go on display in a new free exhibition at the National Library of Scotland on Friday. - More details via the NLS here.
🎬 The Edinburgh Short Film Festival continues until 10 November. - The programme is here.
🫧 A new series of ‘Story Sessions’ curated by Ellie from Soapbox for Creatives begins this Friday, 8 November, at 6pm at Tribe Porty. - Free tickets are here.
📰 The November issue of The List is out now. The List’s online editor Kevin Fullerton says:
“This month we've assembled an issue featuring a selection of stone-cold legends. Leading the pack is our cover star Steve McQueen, who chatted to us about his latest film Blitz, working with Saoirse Ronan and illuminating hitherto marginalised figures in stories about World War II. We've also got an interview with Pedro Almodóvar, a profile on The Cure, a review of Primal Scream's latest album, a chat with up-and-coming rapper Psweatpants, and much more.”
📰 The Skinny also has its November issue out now, featuring: an interview with Gaza poet Mosab Abu Toha, a chat with Nat Raha and Mijke van der Drift about their book ‘Trans Femme Futures’, plus a preview of Push the Boat Out Festival.
📆 For more local creative events and workshops you can get involved in THIS WEEK, do check out The Good Egg Project newsletter by Naomi Head. It’s frankly much more dedicated to local writers’ events than this more general Culture Minute has room for.
⮑ There are also useful in-depth previews of events within the line-ups of Push the Boat Out poetry festival and Edinburgh’s Radical Book Fair (4 days, 70+ publishers and 20+ events), both later this month.
🎭 What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
Here’s All Edinburgh Theatre’s Thom Dibdin:
It is an outrageously busy week with something on nearly every stage.
Theatre fans are well done by, from the final week of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Lyceum (ends Sat: tickets) to the Tony Kushner’s epic Angels in America Part 1: Millennium Approaches (ends Sat: tickets) at the Bedlam. At the Traverse there is Rae Mainwaring's play about Multiple Sclerosis, Bright Places (Wed - Fri: tickets) and Manjeet Man's Run Rebel, aimed at a younger audience (Thurs - Sat: tickets).
For musical theatre fans there's local amateur company Allegro's allegory-packed The SpongeBob Musical (ends Sat: tickets) at the Church Hill and the big tour of Only Fools & Horses The Musical at the Playhouse (ends Sat: tickets).
Opera lovers have two treats: Scottish Opera's revival of their Don Pasquale at the Festival theatre (Fri, Sun & Sat 16: tickets), and the Clyde Opera Group's Puccini Gala at St John's West End (Sat: tickets).
There are more home-grown pleasures too. Debbie Cannon's The Remarkable Deliverances of Alice Thornton is at the Storytelling Centre (Thurs: tickets), while A War of Two Halves about the Hearts team who volunteered en masse in 1915, returns to Tynecastle in time for Remembrance Day (Sat - Thurs 21: tickets).
Finally, Kevin Quantum's Edinburgh Magic is back at the Caledonian Hotel (Fri/Sat: tickets), while the Innovations Contemporary Dance Platform returns to the Studio (Fri/Sat: tickets) with another array of new dance work.
As alway, full deets on Æ’s On Stage This Week and, for those about to drop before next week’s Culture Minute: On Stage Next Week.
Phew! - Thanks Thom!
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard
📌 “Stills is pleased to present Stills Salon, an exhibition presenting the work made in our analogue and digital production facilities, showcasing work by local and international photographers, students, alumni of Stills School and by members of Stills staff and Volunteers. Exhibition running 25 Oct - 30 Nov.” - Thanks to the gallery team for this.
📌 “Leitheatre are holding a Scots Night, open to all, which will include mini workshops on the language of Robert Burns, chorus singing and performing in the round. Using the cantata 'The Jolly Beggars' as a starting point, this is an opportunity for anyone interested in finding out more about one of Edinburgh's leading amateur drama clubs, and how they perform the works of Robert Burns. Please email info@leitheatre.com if you would like to attend, or for more information.” - Thanks to Leitheatre for sharing this.
📌 “TAGS Fest is returning to Fruitmarket for its second year! Come celebrate comics, zines, and tabletop games with over 40 exhibitors sharing their self-published work, and a Boardgame Zone to borrow games from. Free to attend, runs from 10am until 5pm!” - 7 December. - Thanks to Eve Greenwood, co-organiser of TAGS Fest, for this.
📌 “Cinetopia has launched a Substack for the film community! 📽 Every week, Cinetopia Recommends brings you a round-up of the latest film events and festivals, screenings, opportunities, insights, and news helping both film professionals and enthusiasts stay connected to the film community in Edinburgh and beyond...” - Thanks to Team Cinetopia for sharing this.
📌 TODAY, 7pm: “DOCo, the Edinburgh-based documentary community, is hosting director Sarah Grice at its monthly event. We will screen her documentary in progress 'Forgotten Crisis', about a South Sudanese pastor trying to rebuild his community in a refugee camp in Uganda. The screening and discussion will take place on 6th November, 7pm, as usual at the Outhouse Bar.” - Thanks to the event organisers for sharing this.
🤝 This week’s networking, jobs and funding opportunities, including roles in film, community, the Edinburgh International Festival, arts, books and venues:
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