Edinburgh Culture Minute 🪩 12 - 18 November 2025
Stockbridge Creative Colonies open studios weekender, new Grayson Perry in town, Inspace brings Digital Ghosts to life + an album inspired by... this newsletter?!
Welcome to the 108th weekly Culture Minute newsletter: a round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. It's another absolute whopper of an edition. If anyone ever tells you that August is the only time Edinburgh comes to life, forward them this email about a random week in the middle of November! This week's noticeboard, written by readers, is particularly impressive. It makes me love Edinburgh more and I hope you find some good things to do in there too.
As always, if I’ve missed anything please get in touch. And thanks to everyone who contributes.
👀 The most-viewed links from last week’s Edinburgh Culture Minute:
- 🍽️ Woodland dining events at Jupiter Artland.
- 🎨 New Summerhall Arts residency programme for locals.
- 🎹 £50,000 fundraising campaign for Pianodrome's new Bruntsfield home.
🗞️ News:
🏡 This weekend artists in the Stockbridge Colonies will open the doors to their own homes and gardens for visitors. Arts and crafts will be available (cash only) at the annual Stockbridge Creative Colonies open studios event, on Sunday between 12 and 4pm. Some participants will be raising money for charity. Look for the doors with red balloons. Thanks to Alexandra Snowdon for sharing this. - A list of all the artists and addresses is here.
🖼️ The National Galleries of Scotland has acquired Sir Grayson Perry’s The American Dream for the people of Scotland. The eight-foot-long artwork, described as 'an epic satirical statement on our current culture wars', can now be seen for free at Modern One.
🪴 Bardware is a new exhibition at Leith gallery Bard celebrating the everyday poetry of craft through the optimism of a hardware shop. - Ali Morris of Wallpaper visited and reports here. Bard founders Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens share their love of hardware stores, with quotes in the piece about their 'underlying optimism that suggests we can still just about make, fix, build and repair our habitats'. Bardware runs until 23 December.
🎹 Having opened just weeks ago, there's an impressively full line-up of gigs at Bruntsfield's new venue for the Pianodrome project. - See the listings here.
⮑ Among those performing is a band who are apparently inspired by The Edinburgh Minute! I can't quite believe it but I'll be sure to come along to the gig. Here's the note they sent in: 📌 “Sat. 22nd Nov. - Folk duo Dowally have released a new record named 'Local News', partly inspired by their appreciation of hyper-local publications such as this one! You can listen to it in all the usual places and see them play at Bruntsfield Pianodrome on the 22nd of Nov.” - Big thanks to Dowally for sharing this.
❄️ Artists from the Edinburgh-based Abandoned Artists collective are offering their artistic flair on local windows this winter. The team is available to transform shops, venues or homes. - Find out more here.
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's stages this week? Here's Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre with the listings:
A relatively quiet week this, in terms of amount of shows on stage; but there's little that is quiet about what is on those stages.
It's head-to-head Diva-tastic for musical theatre fans as local amateurs Allegro take The Cher Show to the Church Hill Theatre (ends Sat: tickets), while the UK tour of TINA - The Tina Turner Musical drops by the Playhouse (ends Sat 22 Nov: tickets). Fans of both music legends will know exactly what to expect...
The Diva's tiny hands will no doubt be frozen at the Festival Theatre in Scottish Opera's revival of their magnificent 1940s-set La bohéme (Fri - Sat 22: tickets). For light relief, SO's two comedies of infidelity L'heure espagnole & The Bear play for one performance only (Sat: tickets).
At the Traverse, there is fierce protest and music in Apphia Campbell's ★★★★☆ Powerful Through The Mud (Fri/Sat: tickets), her two-hander depicting the struggle for civil rights in the USA in the face of racism. Sadly, its returns-only for Wonder Fools' brilliant Òran (Thurs-Sat: tickets), but definitely worth queuing for.
Finally, and probably a lot less noisily, the wee ones are in for a proper treat at North Edinburgh Arts, where Tortoise in a Nutshell are premiering their new work for four to eight year-olds: Una Imagines (Fri/Sat: tickets).
And that is your lot. For now. Full details on Æ's listings pages: all linked here.
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard
📌 “13 November, 6-10pm - Film Networking in partnership with Edinburgh Short Film Festival! Our regular, informal and friendly mixer for film professionals and enthusiasts is free to attend, and this month we're partnering with our friends at ESFF at the Filmhouse!” - Thanks to the Cinetopia team for sharing this.
📌 “10:00-17:00, Wed-Sun, 5-16 Nov - Digital Ghosts is an exhibition that transforms real web archive data into playful, thought-provoking artworks. Visit this exhibition to explore and interact with real web archive data and question for yourself who decides what’s worth remembering?” - Thanks to Inspace at the Institute for Design Informatics for sharing this.
Design Informatics
📌 "Friday 14 November - Join us for the Creative Edinburgh Awards, a night to honour the people and projects that make our creative community thrive. Whether you're cheering on a finalist or simply want to be part of something bigger, your presence matters! Show your support for Edinburgh's creatives." - Thanks to Creative Edinburgh for sharing this. See you there!
📌 “Leith School of Art’s Easter Courses have just been announced! Join us during the Easter holidays 2026 — there's a course to suit everyone aged 9–99. Book before Friday 19th December to grab an early booking discount and give yourself a pat on the back for being super organised!” - Thanks to Leith School of Art for sharing this.
📌 “Friday 14th November — BEDRÜM — Edinburgh's occasional techno and acid house party is back at Leith Depot Venue, showcasing local bedroom DJs and producers from 7:30pm to 1am. Free entry, all welcome. Come and join us for a night of banging home-grown tunes!” - Thanks to a kind Minute subscriber for sharing this.
📌 “Sat 15th Nov - Wed 19th Nov. Answering an Edinburgh Minute call-out regarding a late cancellation, Artist Andrew Glidden has stepped in and is having a 5-day studio sale / art pop-up at Whitespace Gallery, 76 East Crosscauseway, Newington, Edinburgh EH8 9HQ starting this Saturday. 11-5pm Free.” - Thanks to Andrew Glidden, Artist and serial sketcher, for sharing this. (I love when the noticeboard works like this! Thanks to everyone who uses it - Michael)
📌 “Saturday 15th November 7:30pm. MOZART MAGIC: Calton Consort, Scottish Chamber Choir and Meadows Chamber Orchestra perform Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Sibelius’ Pelléas et Mélisande & Magic Flute overture at St Cuthbert’s Church, Lothian Road. Soloists from the Royal Conservatoire, conductor Iain McLarty.” - Thanks to the organisers for sharing this.
📌 “Saturday 15th November, 1pm - 5pm: Join us to celebrate St Cecilia's Day at St Cecilia's Hall with a variety of performances from a wide range of community musicians from across Edinburgh and the Lothians. Free and open to all!” - Thanks to the organisers for sharing this.
📌 “Sat 15th Nov. Dook hosts ‘Salted’, an exhibition by Kirsty Tanner. Edinburgh soap company Dook are collaborating with Scottish artist Kirsty Tanner (aka founder of Tom Pigeon) to host an exhibition of new paintings inspired by the salted coastal skies and landscapes of the East Coast.” - Thanks to Helen Atherton, founder of Dook, for sharing this.
📌 “Don't miss your chance to see two of Edinburgh's legendary bands playing together at the Queen's Hall this Monday (17 October). 90s popsters Dominic Waxing Lyrical and classically-trained musical polymaths Mr McFalls Chamber are launching their new album Diminuet at this special one-off show.” - Thanks to Jane-Ann of The Soundhouse Organisation for sharing this.
📌 “As part of Book Week Scotland, join us on Wednesday 19 November 6.30pm at Edinburgh Central Library for the free book launch of BALKAN RHAPSODY by Maria Kassimova-Moisset: the first book translated from Bulgarian published in Scotland! Plus, 10th anniversary of Found in Translation book club.” - Thanks to Iliyana Nedkova, translator of Balkan Rhapsody, for sharing this.
📌 “The first Edinburgh improv theatre group in French is giving its first show on the 20th of November, 7.30pm, at the French Institute of Scotland. No clue what will happen as it will be 100% improvised but we guarantee laughter and poetry :) Come and support our 10 actors and vote for the best ones!” - Thanks to Marion and Sarah from La Clique for sharing this.
📌 “22 - 23 November - Around 60 independent designers and makers will descend on the National Galleries Scotland: Portrait, Queen Street, Edinburgh for a national showcase of design and creativity. The Tea Green Events market will run both days from 10am until 5pm, free entry for all.” - Thanks to the organisers for sharing this.
📌 “Wednesday 26 November - Scottish Documentary Institute is delighted to present the Scottish Premier of quirky animated documentary Endless Cookie (2025). Join us at the Filmhouse Cinema for this special screening event, featuring a recorded introduction from the directors of the film!” - Thanks to Caireen Stuart from Scottish Documentary Institute for sharing this.
📌 “L’ENFANCE DU CHRIST - Welcome the coming festive season with the SCO and masses voices of the SCO Chorus. Join us at Usher Hall, Edinburgh on Thursday 27 November at 7.30pm for this epic choral work. Under 26s and students £6. Under 18s go Free. Find out more at www.SCO.org.uk.” - Thanks to Derek Gilchrist of Scottish Chamber Orchestra for sharing this.