🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 28 Feb - 5 March 2024
Local reaction to CS funding news, Filmhouse hits landmark, theatre and gallery jobs + a beautiful new film series about a Sciennes studio
Welcome to the 35th 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! It really is a community effort and I just curate most of it.
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🆕 News & happenings this week
💰 There’s a mixture of good news and sad news for local cultural orgs this week as Creative Scotland announced its latest funding news. Out of 361 groups that applied, 285 organisations will progress to the second stage of the Multi-Year Funding application process, with the outcome due to be announced in October.
⮑ In an email to organisations yesterday Creative Scotland said it would not be publishing any lists of successful or unsuccessful bidders. However, among the the 66 who had their bids rejected are the organisers of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. - Brian Ferguson reports in The Scotsman that the Fringe Society is now seeking ‘urgent clarity’ from the Scottish Government. - Read even more from Brian in this Twitter thread.
⮑ Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy said: “We are naturally disappointed that we continue to fall between the cracks for funding support from our national cultural agencies.”
⮑ Culture Counts, a network of Scottish arts industry organisations, added:
“For those who will now apply to the second stage of funding, there remains a big hill to climb. Whilst the programme has lost just over 20% of applications out of the 361 that applied, the total ask in terms of demand for the programme budget has reduced by only 9% leaving it massively oversubscribed and significantly underfunded. Transparency on how Stage Two decisions will be made is now vital. There is still time for the Scottish Government to act and boost the budget available to Creative Scotland. We welcomed the First Minister’s commitment in October to provide an additional £100 million by 2028-29 to culture, and a further £25 million in 2025-26, however the sector needs clarity on what funding will be available to support the programme at the next stage and into the future and we call upon the Scottish Government to make as much of this funding available now, when it is most urgently needed.”
💰 In other local funding news, 12 local projects will share £52,624 from this year’s Leith Chooses competition. Among the winners are Leith Festival, Edinburgh Remakery and Citadel Youth Centre. - More details are here.
🗞️ The March edition of The Skinny magazine is out, with a whopping 80 PAGES covering national culture.
✍️ Submissions are open for the next issue of Gutter magazine: a place for Scottish and international writing, dedicated to creating space for poetry, fiction and essays. - Submission guidelines are here.
📙 Topping Books has announced an event hosting Irvine Welsh to celebrate publication of his newest novel, Resolution. It’s on 8 July. - More details here.
🛍️ Local shop owner and food writer Jess Elliott Dennison features in a new video series. Produced by Leith-based Cut Across Media, it’s a history of the ‘Elliotts’ store/studio on Sciennes Road. You can watch it here. Series Producer Robbie Durham sent these lines:
“After 5 hugely successful years running the much loved and acclaimed '27 Elliotts' on Sciennes Road, we take a look into the world she created, seeing behind the curtain (made by her mum) discovering who she is, what inspires her day-to-day and watch her prepare some of her most loved dishes. With a weekly episode to enjoy there has never been a better time to put your feet up and immerse yourself into the world of Elliotts.”
🇵🇸 Musicians, poets and artists are teaming up at Summerhall on Saturday to perform in the name of solidarity with the people of Gaza. - More details here.
🖼️ A much-loved statue has returned to the gallery on the Mound after an extended absence. Antonio Canova’s The Three Graces is back in the National Galleries of Scotland for the first time in 11 years. (That’s it being unwrapped in the photo at the top of this newsletter). The gallery explained why it’s been away for so long:
“Jointly owned with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, this extraordinary marble sculpture usually rotates between the two locations every seven years however was delayed due to the opening of the new Scottish galleries at the National. Regarded internationally as an exquisite example of neoclassical European sculpture, this is an exciting opportunity for visitors to see the work in the heart of Edinburgh for free.”
⮑ The galleries have also been sharing locals’ stories of artist Eduardo Paolozzi to mark what would’ve been his 100th birthday. Among them is Edinburgh-based photographer Neil Hanna, who shares his story here.
🎞️ The campaign to reopen The Filmhouse on Lothian Road has passed the £250,000 mark.
🎬 For more local film news, check out the latest edition of Reel Scotland by Jonathan Melville. It features news that One Day is not the only Netflix series filmed in Edinburgh. In fact, there’s one in production in the city right now. - Find out more here.
🎥 The team at Leith-based Studio Something are marking the 5th birthday of the BBC Scotland channel by sharing the story of how they took creative risks and grasped an opportunity to make a new TV show which is now six seasons in.
🎭 Here is Fergus Morgan’s thread of theatre things happening this week.
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's stages this week?
Here’s Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre:
“There's plenty going on this week. The debut play from Edinburgh's Liam Moffat kicks off the new season of lunchtime theatre at the Traverse with JACK (tickets); there's theatrical comedy at the Playhouse with Peter Pan Goes Wrong (tickets); and musical mystery at the Portobello Town Hall with MAMA's 24 Hour Musical Challenge (tickets).
It's also a last chance to see Two Sisters at the Lyceum (tickets), the first chance to see Hamilton at the Festival Theatre (tickets) and your only chance to see 35mm: A Musical Exhibition at the Bedlam (tickets), experimental dance Listen to the Forest at the Roxy(tickets) and Peak Stuff -at the Traverse again (tickets).
As always, I’ve tried to get a bit more insight into all these shows in the Listings and Preview post. You can read it all on All Edinburgh Theatre here.” - Thank you Thom, as always!
📌 Culture Minute news from the Community Noticeboard
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📌 Edinburgh-based independent lending library Trasho Biblio is launching a new research grant for DIY creative projects. - More details are here.
📌 “Matthew Jukes is the wine writer behind the 100 Best Australian Wines Report; he tastes more than 4,000 Australian wines every year, from which he selects his top 100. Jukes is teaming up with Wine Events Scotland in a tasting event celebrating the best Australian wines, which takes place on Saturday 23rd of March in the main hall of The Edinburgh Academy. The tasting comprises wines from all corners of Australia, ranging from great-value, everyday bottles to fabulous fine wines, ranging in price from £7 to £125 a bottle. There will also be tutored wine-tasting masterclasses.” - Diana Thompson, Founder, Wine Events Scotland.
📌 “The annual Kelpies Prize for new children’s authors in Scotland is closing for 2024 entries on February 29th. There’s still time to write a winning entry! The prize is run by Edinburgh indie children’s book publisher Floris Books. The winner receives mentoring, consideration for publishing and £500.”
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🤝 Networking, jobs and funding opportunities:
Here are the new opportunities, followed by the ‘still open’ list: