🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 10-16 January 2024
Summerhall sober fest, £250k funding for local musicians, new Leith writers’ group, Josie Long backs students + new jobs at Collective, Lyceum, Cutting Edge Theatre and Leith Late
Welcome to the 28th edition of the Culture Minute, a weekly round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. It’s for paying subscribers only, so thank you for supporting this. Thanks to everyone who contributed! 💌 You can get the Culture Minute for FREE if you successfully refer three friends. Find your unique link to share here.
🎧 Firstly, open a new tab and get this month’s EHFM Culture Show teed up for when you’re finished with this newsletter. Katie and Katie present what they say is “probably our most personal show ever, accompanied by voice notes from good pals and past guests sharing their own resolutions and hopes for themselves and for our city.”
💰 It’s been a tough winter for a lot of local creatives and organisations who were unsuccessful in their Creative Scotland funding bids. (See December 13th's edition for more on that). But this week there’s some good news as eight local groups secured cash from the Youth Music Initiative fund. Here are the Edinburgh-based winners, getting more than £242,000 between them from the £1.5m Scotland-wide fund:
- A.R.Ts Afternoon - £30,000
- Canongate Youth - £29,949
- City of Edinburgh Council Access to Music Making - £29,913
- Drake Music Scotland - £24,226
- Hear My Music - £30,000
- LYRA - £15,000
- Tinderbox Collective - £70,000
- Tynecastle Youth Community Pipe Band - £13,000
⮑ Application forms for the Youth Music Initiative fund are on the Creative Scotland website.
💰 Meanwhile Creative Scotland has warned it faces yet more ‘difficult decisions’ over who to fund in future after the Scottish Government budget didn’t alleviate the arts industry’s costs crisis. Chief executive Iain Munro said the sector faces an ‘extremely challenging’ year ahead. - Brian Ferguson, The Scotsman.
🎨 There’s just under a month left to apply for Platform: 2024, Edinburgh Art Festival’s Early Career Artist Award. Find out about the open call, check out the criteria and apply before 4 February here.
🤝 If you’re looking for guidance, advice, confidence boosting and new skills, this year’s Creative Edinburgh mentoring programme is now open to applications. It’s for freelancers, entrepreneurs, creative practitioners and small businesses who would like to develop an area of their practice. Successful applicants will get five hours of mentoring over five months from a professional mentor with expertise in their field. Apply by 30 January. The application form with more details is here.
🎭 Performers can register for the 2024 Fringe, which opened for applications this week.
🎤 London comedian Josie Long will return to Edinburgh to headline a student-led charity show. The former Fringe Best Newcomer award winner has agreed to support the University of Edinburgh’s resident comedy society, Edinburgh Revue. Its ‘Bloody Good Comedy’ night on Monday 15 January is in aid of the period poverty charity Sanitree.
“Period poverty and the stigma around menstruation affects so many and it is time to fight back. I am honoured to be able to support Sanitree in the fantastic work that they do, and I am so proud of all the work that has gone in to make this show a success.” - Matilda Axon, Edinburgh Revue President.
🎹 Pictish Trail has announced a new live show at Leith FAB Cricket Club on Saturday 23 March 2024.
🎸 Independent Venue Week gives us all something to look forward to at the end of January. Sneaky Pete’s have announced their line-up for the event. See the listings here.
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✍️ Professional artist and risographer Cé Simonis will lead a zine-making masterclass at Typewronger next month. - Learn more and sign up here.
🎞 The Cameo cinema has launched a new online archive series showcasing brochures from over the years.
🎨 A series of workshops for people over the age of 50 ‘with a story to tell’ begins this weekend at Summerhall. Tricky Hat is welcoming people aged 50+ to join their performance company The Flames, in creating a show that challenges pre-conceived ideas of how older people think and what they aspire to. - More information here.
📌 Sober festival at Summerhall next weekend: “FLARE* Festival: a community wellness focused wellness event, which elevates, champions and celebrates all the unsung heroes in the small business space, who are passionate about serving others, with their mission to make a contribution to YOUR well-being! Expect a full feast of talks, workshops, creative classes, movement, performances, mindfulness, stalls & demonstrations, music, sharing circles, alcohol free bars, raffles, dancing, food and much, much more! 20th & 21st January, Summerhall, Newington” - Nicole (Nico) Ferguson, Founder of FLARE*.
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's Stages this week? Here’s what’s happening this week in local theatres, courtesy of Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre:
“There’s a great clutch of half a dozen shows to choose from, reflecting a full range of sizes and styles from solo shows to huge musicals. The two local offerings are firstly from the BA Dance and Drama students at the Traverse on Saturday with a dance Double Bill, and then at the Lyceum in Forbes Masson’s hotly anticipated return, in a one-person take on Jekyll & Hyde, written by Gary McNair.
“Also opening is Cassie Workman’s solo show Aberdeen at Summerhall - a brilliant and intimate exploration of self and Kurt Cobain I saw during the Fringe and throughly recommend - and the arrival of the huge Macbeth out at the Royal Highland Centre, with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma in the title roles. Find out more in our listings.”
✍️ Lost In Leith is hosting a new monthly writers’ group, with the first session focusing on Beating the Blank Page. Leith-based writer Naomi Head is behind the Chicken Coop Writing Group, welcoming ‘writers of all levels and genres’ on Tuesday 30 January. - More details are on Naomi’s Instagram post.
🔊 Whitespace will host the return of Wavetable next week, ‘a night of sonic experimentation’. - More details via Simon Kirby on Instagram.
🫧 Gentle networking morning Soapbox returns on Tuesday 30 January. Register for free here so they know how many coffees, teas and snacks to get in. The Edinburgh Minute is a proud sponsor of Soapbox for a whole year. See you there.