Category: Leith

Edinburgh School Receives Free Author Residency

Scottish Book Trust has announced ten schools who will receive fully-funded author residencies this school year to inspire a lifelong love of reading and writing – and one of the ten is Leith’s Hermitage Park Primary School. 

The residencies will also give professional writers the opportunity to build relationships with the school and work together on a creative project. Continue reading Edinburgh School Receives Free Author Residency

Port of Leith Housing Association holds young persons’ street art workshop

 

A group of young people have created a graffiti mural with Port of Leith Housing Association to celebrate Scottish Housing Day. Led by Spectrum Arts, the group experimented with spray painting techniques on an indoor wall at Transgression Skatepark inside Ocean Terminal. Continue reading Port of Leith Housing Association holds young persons’ street art workshop

Doors Open Days coming up

The Edinburgh Doors Open Day 2019 gives you the chance to discover some of Edinburgh’s most unique and interesting buildings which are normally closed to the public. Across the weekend you can visit these fantastic sites across the city, completely free of charge.

Drumsheugh Baths Club DAD 2019

Open the door on Edinburgh’s hidden gems

The Edinburgh Doors Open Days is one of the city’s favourite free days out. This is your chance to explore some of Edinburgh’s most important buildings. Many venues will offer behind the scenes tours, talks or exhibitions to bring the history of these monumental buildings to life.

New locations for 2019 include: 

– Castle Mills
– Collective at the City Observatory
– Dean Gardens
– Drumsheugh Baths Club (above)
– Informatics Forum
– MRC Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine
– Panmure House
– Seafield Treatment Centre

Plus, locations such as Anatomical Museum, Burns Monument and the Lothian Buses headquarters will be opening their doors to the public once again this year.

Read about all of these places and more on the Doors OpenDays website. 

2019-brochure

 

New Chairperson for Port of Leith Housing Association

Port of Leith Housing Association’s 43rd Annual General Meeting saw its Chairperson Margaret O’Connor stand down under the Association’s five-year rule. Vice Chair Caitlin McCorry has now been appointed Chairperson of the Association.  Continue reading New Chairperson for Port of Leith Housing Association

Stormy weather: Mela faces uncertain future

Edinburgh Mela 2019 was held on Saturday the 31st August and Sunday the 1st of September at Leith Links. There were strong winds on the Saturday but sunshine on the Sunday. In terms of public safety the Festival was closed for two hours on Saturday. 
Paid-for Services were regrettably and unavoidably limited on Saturday because of the bad weather but on Sunday the ‘Mela was the Mela’ of a capacity crowd coming in, staying and leaving. Also, children played on fun fair equipment and adults and the elderly sat, stood, talked and ate a wide variety of wonderfully cooked foods.
Here, different people were expressing a common humanity. The Edinburgh Mela remains a local event put on by the Mela Board for the people at no cost. This ‘free’ concept remains important to the Board because no one should be excluded because of not being able to pay an entrance fee. Music, dancing and a fashion show were provided and were enjoyed by people of different cultures. Edinburgh Mela remains a multicultural event.
Funding was Lottery funding. It was limited but greatly appreciated. Council funding and funding from Creative Scotland were sadly missed.
Financially, the Mela may not survive much longer but if the community loses the Mela after nearly 25 years in place, a special way of bringing our multicultural community will be lost.
Such a loss will reduce a sense of belonging. A sense of belonging is an important part of community cohesion and contribution to our society.
The nature of Mela (2019) is captured in the post-Mela clean-up of the Links when a neighbour saw Mela Board members and the Chair Sir Geoff Palmer (above) cleaning and stayed and helped. Turned out her husband, a journalist, had interviewed Sir Geoff Palmer decades ago about his life and race relations.
Edinburgh Mela