🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 20-26 Dec 2023

Welcome to the 25th 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 (and a taster for free subscribers), so thank you for supporting this and thanks to everyone who contributed! 

📆 Next week’s edition will have a Hogmanay theme. If you’ve got a local event to promote, please get in touch to share the details.

💌  You can get the Culture Minute for FREE if you successfully refer three friends:

💰 Culture funding got a £15.8m increase in the Scottish Government’s budget this week. But Creative Scotland is still facing a £50m shortfall compared to the industry’s financial demand. Questions are being asked about whether restoring previous cuts counts as ‘new’ investment. Here’s a quick overview:

🗣 First Minister Humza Yousaf previously pledged to increase funding for arts and culture by at least £100 million more by the 2028/29 budget.
⮑ Jack Gamble, director of the Campaign for the Arts, said: 

“It’s a relief that the Scottish Government has restored its £6.6m cut to Creative Scotland, and recommitted this funding for next year, after months of campaigning involving 25,000 Campaign for the Arts supporters. But despite the First Minister’s recent pledge to ‘more than double’ investment in culture, next year’s overall culture budget will be 6% smaller than in 2022-23 in real terms. Once the cuts to Creative Scotland have been remedied, there is only £2.6m of new cultural investment.” - Read CftA’s full response here.

🗣  The Scotsman’s Arts Correspondent Brian Ferguson described the funding situation as ’a shambles’.

⮑  Brian’s full report is here.

🗣  BBC Scotland Arts Correspondent Pauline McLean said arts organisations are ‘teetering on the brink’ and that the funding announcement ‘falls far short’ of what people working in the creative sectors need.

🗣  Lori Anderson of Edinburgh-based Culture Counts warned: “Scotland stands to lose a number of much-loved cultural organisations with 900 jobs being at immediate risk.”
⮑  Francesca Hegyi, executive director of Edinburgh International Festival, said the sector ‘has been ignored for 15 or 16 years on the basis it will take care of itself’. - Holyrood magazine.
📑 ⮑  The Scottish Government’s full budget report is here.

💸  In happier news, some local groups have secured money from the Creative Scotland Open Fund. A total of £1.1m will be shared among more than 50 artists, projects and groups around the country. A list of the Edinburgh-based recipients is here in The Edinburgh Reporter.

🎟  Tickets have gone on sale for the Hidden Door festival’s 10th birthday party at a secret city-centre location in May.
⮑ Here’s a clue: It’s in the EH1 postcode and is a location that has never been used for an event like Hidden Door before . Share your guesses in the comments section! - More details here.

🎞  Film fans can win a year’s access to Letterboxd by adding a review to the Cameo bar’s pinboard. - Details here.

🎧  The second (‘sillier’) part of the Cineskinny's end-of-year review podcast is here.

🎭  The return of A Play, A Pie and a Pint has been confirmed for spring 2024. - Here’s a thread of the shows that are planned.

🖼  If you’re looking for things to do during the next fortnight, here’s a helpful post containing ongoing exhibitions at local galleries including Fruitmarket, Arusha in the New Town, Collective, Sierra Metro and Dovecot. - Edinburgh Art Festival on Instagram. Get it bookmarked for that week between Christmas and new year.

📚  The staff at some of Edinburgh’s best independent bookshops share their books of the year in The Skinny.

🎹  The Skinny has also asked local music shops for their 2023 top tips. Winners and bubblers come from the likes of Aimee at Assai, Mark at Thorne Records, Laura, Nick and Josh at Umbrella and Gavin at Underground Solu'shn. Local legends the lot of them. - Here’s the full list, compiled by Tallah Brash in The Skinny.

🔊 Big news for indie fans: Everything Everything have announced an intimate album launch show for Assai at The Caves in support of their upcoming album, Mountainhead. - Tickets go on sale on Thursday morning here.

🎸  Edinburgh band The Hippie People pare profiled by Patrick McCole in the latest archive dive on the local libraries blog. - Tales of one city. Thanks to Thom Dibdin for sharing this. 

🗣  Cassie Workman is bringing her epic Kurt Cobain biography-poem ‘Aberdeen’ (winner of a 2022 Fringe First award) back to Edinburgh for a four night run at Summerhall on 11-14 January. - More details and tickets here. Thank you to Marlene for sharing the details. 

‘A howl of a poem… a phenomenal storyteller. I was floored.’ - Phoebe Waller-Bridge on Cassie Workman’s ‘Aberdeen’.

🎭  Here’s what’s happening this week in local theatres, courtesy of Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre: 

“What is on Edinburgh’s stages this pre-Christmas week? With a full card of theatre activity in this week before Christmas, all the pantomimes now in full flow and the addition of the Magic Festival which starts on Wed 20th, we have looked at ticket availability for those who need a last minute fix of the live stuff! 

“Word to the wise, though - be quick! Many productions have only single tickets available. However there seems to be good availability on weekday's for Edinburgh amateur company EPT's Cinderella at the Church Hill, which our Hugh was at last night and says: "Rather than rewriting the genre, or wishing it was a piece of musical theatre, this is a proper old-fashioned pantomime, and all the better for it.” - All Edinburgh Theatre’s listings for this busy week of shows are here.

🤝  Networking, jobs and funding opportunities: 

Although we’re in the depths of winter, there are plenty of new opportunities popping up locally. Here’s what I’ve found: