🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 17-23 January 2024

Welcome to the 29th 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.

💰  A group of freelance artists have come together to organise a series of meetings to discuss the current funding system. Action Against Endless Applications is organised by Tess Letham, an Edinburgh-based independent dance artist, who says: “The meetings will bring freelance artists together to discuss their experiences collectively, with the aim to find actions as a group to take forward and implement changes to our current systems.” - To attend the meeting at Dance Base on Friday 19 January, sign up to the Facebook event here.

🎻  The headline acts for this year’s Edinburgh Tradfest have been announced. Douglas Robertson and Jane-Ann Purdy, co-producers of the event said: 

“Every year we look to up our game at Edinburgh Tradfest so we are very excited to share not one but two BIG venue concerts for 2024. With Valtos and Special Guests at the Queen’s Hall to open and Julie Fowlis at the Assembly Rooms to close this year’s festival we know we are looking forward to a bumper year. Our opening weekend is also chock-full of superstars and gives a fine taster of what lies ahead for the rest of the programme. We can’t wait for it to start.” - The full line up and tickets are available here.

🎶  Two new Edinburgh acts make The Skinny’s spotlight on new Scottish music in 2024. - Read about Tallah Brash’s picks here.

🎞️  Plenty of local film news this week: 

🎥  The second edition of the North Edinburgh Film Festival has been announced for Saturday 3 February at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. The festival celebrates community cinema and filmmaking in north Edinburgh and is completely free to attend. - More details here.
  ⮑  The event is organised by North Edinburgh Arts and Screen Education Edinburgh, which is also welcoming applications to its Young Filmmakers Hub, supported by the Sean Connery Foundation. - The deadline is 22 January and more details about getting involved are here.

🍿  Organisers of the Edinburgh International Film Festival have also announced their dates for the diary: 15-21 August. Described as a ‘new look’ and ‘revitalised’ event under new director, Paul Ridd, EIFF will aim to ‘accelerate the discovery of new talent through significant prize-money’.

“Our new look EIFF falls in a festival month where culture is alive and vibrant in the city, and we also arrive at a point of tremendous industry growth for Scotland with a production boom of streamers, studios and independents working side by side. We are so excited to present what we have in the works and we invite creators, industry leaders and independent film fans who want to be a part of the reimagining of a world-class festival to get in touch with the team, bookmark the EIFF website, and start planning travel to Edinburgh in August. Bring it on!” - Paul Ridd, EIFF Director. 

📽️  Craigmillar Now is the next stop on the free Community Cinema Hubs Project film programme. Eight local venues are participating in the project, funded by the council via the Creative Community Hubs Network. Screening over the next three Thursdays in Craigmillar will be the Bill Douglas Trilogy. - More details here. 

📚  More new dates for the diary announced this week: Fruitmarket Artists’ Bookmarket and Edinburgh Zine Festival will return in tandem on 10-11 February.
  ⮑  The bookmarket has dozens of stallholders, an exhibition by Jane Hyslop as well as talks and workshops. - All the bookmarket details are here.
  ⮑  The Edinburgh Zine Festival events list is revealed here and includes panel talks, a quiz night and workshops.

🇵🇸  Later this month Fruitmarket will also host an afternoon of Short Talks for Palestine. Independent journalist and photographer Ahmad Al-Bazz will be presenting his work. - It’s free and more details are here.

📌 Sober festival at Summerhall this 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: 

“The good news from West Lothian that the Howden Park Centre, a lovely little theatre in Livingston and in my mind a vital part of the ecology of theatre in Scotland of the type which we are in danger of losing, has been reprieved.

“What’s on stage this week, I hear you cry! It’s only the big stuff on Edinburgh’s stages this week… The main event is Forbes Masson’s turn in a one-person Jekyll & Hyde which opened at the Lyceum last night. It's a hugely atmospheric and crisply directed production which writer Gary McNair has given contemporary relevance and an ending that even the most ardent fans of RLS are unlikely to see coming.

“Then there is Macbeth at the Royal Highland Centre, with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varma in the title roles. And the rest is ballet. It’s the last chance to Scottish Ballet’s Cinders! at the Festival Theatre. While Varna International Ballet go back to basics at the Playhouse with three of Tchaikovsky’s greatest ballets. As always: full details in our listings round-up.”

👾  The Edinburgh Global Game Jam kicks off in just over a week. - Get involved here.

✂️  There’s a zine making workshop at the Community Wellbeing Space at Westside Plaza in Wester Hailes on Monday. - More details here.

🎤  Slam pioneer Anita Govan will host A Brand New Poem Slam at Lost in Leith on Sunday. - More details here. 

🎤  The Loud Poets will mark their 10th anniversary with ‘a night of fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching poetry’. It’s at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on 16 February and all the details are here.

📔  More than 30 local writers feature in Origin Stories, a new collection of short stories and poems published by volunteer-run community arts charity The Forest. The book’s co-editor Vidisha Ghosh shared details of launch events at Typewronger Books on 29 January and Lighthouse Books on 31 January. 

🎨  Dovecot Studios has announced a Warhol After Hours event series. It’s a guided tour of Andy Warhol: The Textiles, mixing cocktails, socialising and art appreciation. - More details here.
⮑  Dovecot will also host a talk on Friday by James Knox, Director of the Fleming Collection, sharing ‘the inside story of the collection's remarkable acquisition strategy since 2016 of some of the art found in our Scottish Women Artists exhibition.’ - More details here.

📚  The Portobello Bookshop’s upcoming events include Val McDermid, Durre Shahwar and Michael Cunningham. - See the full events listings here. 

🎻  On Friday Leith’s Custom House hosts Emma Jane Lloyd live in concert, with funds raised going to the Edinburgh Tool Library. - Tickets are on Eventbrite.

🤝  Networking, jobs and funding opportunities: 

Here are the new jobs, followed by the ‘still open’ list: