🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 6-12 Dec 2023
Hidden Door sale, farewell to a creative titan, local festive arts markets, a treat for Pratchett fans + the latest cultural jobs
Welcome to the 23rd 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!
✍️ Writing
💰 A £3,000 top prize is up for grabs in the 2024 Edinburgh Short Story Award. Entries are now open to writers and stories focused on any topic up to 2,000 words. There’s also a £750 prize for the top previously-unpublished writer. - More details via Creative Scotland and the Scottish Arts Trust.
📻 Artists, writers and musicians unite at Summerhall this weekend for the annual Cold Turkey’s Festive Frolic.
🎁 This month’s issue of The Skinny looks at everything that made 2023 good. There’s also some beautiful wrapping paper in the centre-spread. Such a cool idea. Check it out here.
📝 Rachel Arthur, founder and editor of innovative Edinburgh-based magazine Boom Saloon, talks to the FT’s Turning Point podcast about how she works with a global community of creatives.
⮑ Boom Saloon also has a new membership programme allowing people to join a global creatives’ network and ‘directly support our community projects and further our work to democratise creativity for good’.
🎶 Music
🎉 Hot Chip at Greyfriars Hall and Lau with Kathryn Joseph at St Giles’ Cathedral are among the acts announced in the Hogmanay First Footin’ live music programme, which you can see in full here.
🎹 Indie icons Arab Strap are playing on Sunday night at Summerhall.
🎸 This weekend’s gigs at Sneaky Pete’s are listed here and the club nights are listed here.
🎧 Summerhall's Chief Executive Sam Gough is a guest on Fringe Benefits Edinburgh, a new podcast by Molly Merwin ‘exploring the unique dynamics of the Edinburgh Fringe from various different perspectives’. - You can listen to the first episodes here.
🎻 The Really Terrible Orchestra, founded by writer Alexander McCall Smith in 1995, have their free annual Christmas concert on Saturday at St George’s School in Ravelston on Saturday.
🍿 Film
🎧 The latest Cineskinny podcast is live here. The team share their top films of 2023.
☃️ The Cameo cinema’s annual ‘Festive Feast’ of events is here.
🎬 In the latest edition of ReelScotland, Jonathan Melville rounds up what’s happening in the world of Scottish film and TV, including a lot of Edinburgh happenings.
🎥 The team from See It On Screen have issued an appeal to help get their fundraiser over the line with a couple of days to go. They’re a local production group that helps locals get their visions on to cinema screens. - More details here.
🎞 More updates from the bid to reopen The Filmhouse cinema:
⮑ 📣 Actor Dougray Scott says the cinema reopening ‘is really important’ to him.
“One of my best memories of my own career is having Enigma premiered there in 2001. I have a personal connection to The Filmhouse and it’s just so damn important that we keep this incredible institution alive. It’s an incredible cinema with a great history.”
⮑ The fundraiser currently sits just shy of £200,000 with 48 days left to reach its £250,000 target.
🎭 Stage
🎄 Panto arrives at the Scottish Storytelling Centre this weekend. Oh yes it does, etc. Macastory's Hansel and Gretel is specially devised for a young audience and their parents. Organisers say: “It’s a BIG story for LITTLE people.” - Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th December at 11am and 2pm. Thanks to Daniel for sharing the details.
🎭 Here’s what’s happening this week in local theatres, courtesy of Thom Dibdin of All Edinburgh Theatre:
“What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week? Good question! Glad you asked – the answer is much and various as the full range of Christmas shows opens, while there are a handful of most excellent local amateur shows to look out for.
“There’s even a bit of politics, as Mark Thomas returns to the Traverse outside the Fringe with England and Son. Sadly for those without tickets, both of this week's local pantomimes have already sold out, but Terry Pratchett fans are in for a treat with local grassroots company Strawmoddie Theatre who are staging Hogfather at the Pleasance (ticket details here).
⮑ There's full 13 shows to choose from, so here's a link to the weekly preview.”
🩰 Among those weekend shows is a new panto production of Cinderella opening on Friday for a five-week run at Portobello Town Hall. “Our new production will provide an exciting alternative for schools and families in Portobello, Leith, Musselburgh, and beyond, in the stunning surroundings of Portobello Town Hall. We are proud to offer affordable ticketing options for school groups and families across the Lothians, as well as accessible performances.” - Thank you to subscriber Fede for sharing the info.
🤹♀️ Everything else
👋 Chris Speed, Founding Director of the Creative Informatics programme at the University of Edinburgh, has left his role. He’s heading down-under to work at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. - There are tributes and stories here from his colleagues at the uni and from the Talbot Rice Gallery.
🚪 The Hidden Door festival has a fundraiser art sale this weekend. Thanks to director Hazel Johnson for sending over the details:
“Featuring hundreds of pieces from dozens of past Hidden Door artists, our 2023 Art Sale is the ideal opportunity to grab some wonderful artwork. All proceeds from the sale will be split between the artists and Hidden Door, so every purchase will go straight towards supporting the local creative community.”
It’s at The Hub on Castlehill with opening party and preview night: 7-10pm Friday 8th December. Then: 12-5pm Saturday 9th + Sunday 10th December. It features:
- Over 700 pieces ranging from £3 to £2000
- Live Illustrated Photo Booth with Rohanie Campbell-Thakoordin
- Entertainment from Paradise Palms
- Refreshments including festive mulled wine and a range of brews from Bellfield Brewery. Here’s the FB event page.
♻️ The curator of a new immersive exhibition ‘exploring the relationship between art and environmental activism’ will be speaking at the National Museum of Scotland on Thursday. In the auditorium event from 2pm, Dr Ali Clark will be joined by artists George Nuku and Angela Tiatia as they discuss how Indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander artists are responding to the climate crisis with works that showcase the community resilience. Highlighting examples from the exhibition, they will consider the use of art as a means of protest. - More details about the event and live audience Q&A here.
💙 This weekend Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Leith hosts the first of two weekend-long Christmas Arts Markets. - See the stall holder list in this post.
⚓️ Resident makers will be selling their works at the Leith Custom House Christmas open day on Saturday.
🎨 While we’re in that area, local design shop and gallery Bard is featured in Surface Magazine. Co-founders and husbands Hugo Macdonald and James Stevens celebrated a year in business last month. - Journalist Jenna Adrian-Diaz writes: “In an industry that largely anonymizes its actual makers, Bard’s vision of slow design feels refreshing.”
👀 Artist-run Sett Studios on Leith Walk hosts its festive market on 16 and 17 December. - There are some eye-opening candles among the stall listings in this post.
🧵 Local designers, makers and artists are holding ‘a wee mini market’ in the corner shop at Paradise Palms (Bristo Square) this weekend. - More details here.
🫧 The last Soapbox for creatives event of the year is on Tuesday 19 December between 8am-10am at Sierra Metro on Ferry Road. - Free tickets are here.
📌 Reader Kenneth Gray writes: “Love the newsletter. Just to let you know for the Culture newsletter - artist Victoria Crowe’s exhibition Low Winter Sun opens today at The Scottish Gallery on Dundas Street. It runs until 23 December. My connection - I designed the catalogue and some of my photographs of Victoria appear in the exhibition.” - See an overview of the event here.