Partnership secures the future of Leith Custom House

Scottish Historic Buildings Trust (SHBT) is delighted to announce a new community partnership with Leith Civic Trust aimed at securing the long-term future of Leith Custom House.

The collaboration promises to transform this landmark historic building into a vibrant civic space and Scotland’s first fully digital museum, creating a ‘town square for the twenty-first century’ that will celebrate Leith’s unique culture and heritage. 

Maggie Wright, Chair, Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Leith Civic Trust to help us realise the long-held community desire for a museum for Leith.

The ambition has always been for this museum to be managed by the community through a community-led charitable trust who would ensure that the museum responds to local needs and aspirations, Leith Civic Trust will help us realise this goal together.  

“This project has been a long-time in development, but following the agreement last year with Edinburgh Museums & Galleries, we are delighted that the project now has real momentum”  

Following from the strategic partnership with City of Edinburgh Council Museums & Galleries agreed last October, the new community partnership with Leith Civic Trust will ensure that this project is developed for, and by, the local community.

Leith Civic Trust will be adopted by SHBT as the future operator of the groundbreaking museum at the heart of this innovative restoration project.

This marks an exciting new chapter for Leith Civic Trust whose work for over two decades has championed the history and heritage of Leith.  

SHBT will support Leith Civic Trust in growing its membership and recruiting new trustees, who will receive in-depth training to manage the digital museum once the restoration is complete. 

Cron Mackay, President, Leith Civic Trust, said: “Since our foundation in 1968, Leith Civic Trust has been dedicated to preserving and championing the beauty, history and character of Leith. Leith has a wealth of distinctive stories to tell, and we are delighted that the new museum at Custom House will be a space where all Leithers, old and new, can see themselves represented.

We look forward to welcoming new Members as we embark on this exciting journey together with SHBT and encourage anyone who may be interested in being involved to get in touch.” 

Ben Macpherson, MSP for Leith, attended the event and said: “It is great to see this progress, and further collaboration, towards realising the potential of the Customs House as an even better space for the people of Leith to use and enjoy, and for visitors to come and check out too.

“The plans are exciting and the momentum is building, with more partners getting involved and new potential avenues for funding emerging.

“I pay tribute to everyone that’s been involved in the project – including those who saved the building for the community, and have been engaged for many years now – and I look forward to continuing to support the exciting vision that there is now for the Customs House, and believe that by working together we can all make this happen.”

Tracy Gilbert, Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, said: “One of my very first visits as an MP was to Leith Custom House, and even then, I was amazed by the dedication of the team to securing Custom House as a community anchor.

“The launch of the partnership demonstrates a strong commitment to working with local businesses and residents. I congratulate the whole team on their success so far and look forward to working with them to deliver their ambitious vision.”

 

Edinburgh International Festival celebrates record-breaking Youth Participation with 25 Years of Art of Listening Workshops

2025 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME RUNS FROM 1–24 AUGUST 2025

eif.co.uk / @edintfest

  • Edinburgh International Festival’s Art of Listening workshops celebrate 25 years of inspiring schoolchildren through live classical music, reaching a record 3,000 young people in 2025, and expanding with a new family-friendly workshop open to the public
  • summer programme for young people includes an interactive Family Concert, a free outdoor singalong event The Big Singalong, and the Young Musician’s Pass, a programme offering over 2,000 free concert tickets to young music fans.
  • From Discover Opera school tours set to introduce over 1,000 pupils to opera this year, to ongoing initiatives that bring events to community and healthcare settings, the Festival’s year-round programmes deeply engage with Edinburgh’s communities, enhancing wellbeing and expanding access to live performance.

This year the Edinburgh International Festival’s flagship workshop Art of Listening celebrates 25 years of bringing live classical music to schoolchildren across Edinburgh.

Across this quarter century, the workshop has been delivered to an approximate approximate 23,000 pupils, and so far in 2025 has reached an unprecedented 3,000 young people — its largest audience to date.

Designed for pupils aged 10-12, Art of Listening introduces children to the artforms of classical music and opera through an imaginative blend of live performance, songs and activities. Taking place at the International Festival’s home, The Hub, these two-hour workshops feature music ranging from Beethoven and Britten to the Harry Potter film scores and Taylor Swift.

Led by a facilitator, professional opera singer and pianist, the sessions encourage participants to engage their imaginations, strengthen listening skills and respond creatively to music. For many children, this is their first experience of live classical music.

The workshop has been delivered across every ward in Edinburgh, and are offered every year to every state primary school in the city, anchoring the International Festival’s strong commitment to culturally impacting the cultural and civic life of the city.

For the first time, Art of Listening for Families will also be open to the public as part of the International Festival’s 2025 programme, with an interactive workshop designed for children aged 7-11 and their accompanying adults to discover the joy of active listening together.

Back due to popular demand, the Family Concert is recommended for ages 7-11, but suitable for all ages. In a special interactive introduction to classical music, Scottish musical traditions are contrasted with the sounds of America, performed by the inspirational young musicians of the National Youth Orchestra 2 from New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall, with presenter Lucy Drever introducing the musicians and the music.

During the International Festival’s opening weekend, singing enthusiasts of all ages are also invited to Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Bandstand for The Big Singalong, a free event led by Stephen Deazley, artistic director of Edinburgh’s Love Music Community Choir.

Every year, the International Festival’s Young Musician’s Pass opens up opportunities for young people who live in Scotland and play a musical instrument or sing to discover a world of music for free.

With over 2000 tickets available, each budding musician can claim up to three pairs of free tickets for Festival performances from the world’s finest orchestras and ensembles. A free scheme that is open to anyone aged 8-18, the full details and range of performances will be released today and can be found at www.eif.co.uk/ymp.

Secondary school pupils are invited to performances and activities during August across music, theatre, opera and dance in the Discover series, an annual commitment to creating pathways to each artform and foster a lifelong love of the arts. This year, Discover Opera tours Edinburgh schools in June to introduce 1,000 students to the story and music of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as offering 500 tickets to students to attend the spectacular opera for free in August, enabling many to see opera on stage for the first time.

This summer will also see flagship projects that bring groups into the heart of August’s performances, developing long-term connections with Edinburgh’s communities to find ways to reflect the ideas, ambitions and creative interests of different groups within the International Festival’s year-round work.

In 2025, for the first time the International Festival has established a Youth Collective, inviting fifteen young people from across Edinburgh to co-create the youth experience of the 2025 Festival, such as a Youth Takeover Day for senior pupils from across Edinburgh.

Culture Clubs for community groups, and pop-up performances at NHS settings, with the NHS Lothian Charity, extend the joy of the International Festival beyond concert hall and theatres, into local communities.

The International Festival’s multi-year Community Connections Hub partnership with Space @ Broomhouse Hub also continues, creating work experience opportunities for young people, co-curated projects and inviting artists including Aga Khan Masters, London Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Ballet to connect with the Broomhouse community.

Nicola Benedetti, Edinburgh International Festival Director, said: “For a quarter of a century, Art of Listening has opened the doors of classical music to thousands of Edinburgh’s young people.

It’s a programme rooted in the belief that live performance should be accessible to everyone, and we’re thrilled to welcome a record number of eager schoolchildren in 2025. Expanding the workshops to families in our 2025 Festival marks a wonderful new chapter, inviting audiences across generations to connect with music in fresh and inspiring ways.”

Caroline Donald, Head of Discovery and Participation said: “Removing financial barriers and creating a welcoming space for families and schools are cornerstones of the year-round work we do.

“The International Festival provides workshops like Art of Listening free of charge to all participating schools, including transport costs, ensuring children from all backgrounds can experience the power of live classical music — often for the very first time.

“Underpinning the International Festival is an ambition to build relationships and offer meaningful, valued, world-expanding experiences through the performing arts, and we’re excited to continue our work with the young people of Edinburgh and their communities.”

Tickets to experience the Art of Listening for Families and other performances at the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival are available at www.eif.co.uk.

For full information about the International Festival’s year-round work, visit www.eif.co.uk/social-impact.

Specialists gather in Edinburgh for European Arts Festivals Summit 2025

Pic Greg Macvean 27/04/2025 City of Edinburgh Council – reception at City Chambers for the Arts Festivals Summit

215 festival specialists gathered this week in Edinburgh for the European Arts Festivals Summit 2025.

Hosted by the Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh, and the City of Edinburgh Council, the Arts Festivals Summit 2025 of the European Festivals Association’s (EFA) welcomed over 200 festival professionals for a four-day conversation about festivals, arts, and the role of arts festivals today.

With 215 delegates participating from 44 countries, it has brought diverse perspectives, questions, and themes forward on how festivals can assume a responsible role towards their artists, audiences and societies in an ever-changing world.

Edinburgh International Festival Director, Nicola Benedetti opened the Summit with a keynote talk on her experience of taking on the role and how her perspective as a performing artist has shaped her approach to curation, collaboration and connection.

Ms Benedetti shared reflections on the importance of holding in balance a deep respect for the past whilst providing a fertile ground for daring innovation, risk and unbridled creativity. 

Delegates heard from a range of different voices and perspectives to gain a greater understanding of the interaction between festivals and their city, particularly in the case of Edinburgh, and explored the different aspects that contribute to Edinburgh’s success story.

They had the chance to meet the network of Festivals that exists in Edinburgh and the eleven festivals that contribute to Edinburgh’s unique reputation as The Festival City.

Fittingly Edinburgh is one of the founding members of the recently established EFFE Seal for Festival Cities and Regions, run by EFA which was developed by seven cities – Belgrade, Bergen, Edinburgh, Ghent, Krakow, Leeuwarden, and Ljubljana – to build on the achievements of the EU-funded Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe – EFFE programme and sets out to build co-operation between cities and their festivals across Europe.

During the Summit, four cities signed up to the EFFE Seal: Nis (Serbia), Budapest II District (Hungary), Coimbra (Portugal) and Tampere (Finland).

The EFFE Seal recognises cities for their commitment to their festival communities and aims to promote creativity, sustainability, internationalism, and resilience through knowledge exchange.

The future of festivals and their place in society focused delegates on how festivals contribute to societal topics such as sustainability, inclusion, well-being and freedom of speech, discussed from the point of best practices, learning from failures, perspectives and innovative proposals.

Inspiring keynotes by Roman Krznaric, author and social philosopher, and Elena Polivtseva, independent researcher and a co-founder of Culture Policy Room, challenged participants to think through the current tests the arts are facing, their vision for the future and the importance of long term thinking.

Nicola Benedetti, Festival Director, Edinburgh International Festival, said: “The Edinburgh International Festival exists to spark dialogue and cultural exchange – not only on our stages, but across communities and borders.

“It was a privilege to host the European Festivals Association’s 2025 Summit at The Hub, our home in the heart of the Festival City – where the International Festival sparked what is now the largest cultural celebration after the Olympics, every August in Edinburgh.

“Being surrounded by such a dynamic gathering of cultural leaders was a powerful reminder that the most enduring festivals and institutions are driven by a deeper desire to change society for the better.

“Coming together with our international counterparts to reflect, challenge, and collaborate on how we can deepen our impact was both energising and essential.”

Jan Briers, President of European Festivals Association affirmed: “The Summit in Edinburgh was full of new information, permanent networking, and making new collaborations and friends.

“It was a wonderful edition during which festivals coming from many different contexts discussed the future and its shape.”

Lori Anderson, Director of Festivals Edinburgh added: “Seeing our European festival colleagues inspired by cultural conversations across the city, and exhilarated by the beauty of Edinburgh, has been not only heartening but deeply moving – and reminds us that, in the current climate of global uncertainly, there is so much that unites us and so much to gain from deeper international relationships”.

EFA Members elected their President giving a continued mandate to its current chair, Jan Briers 

Jan BRIERS shared: “I am pleased to continue to chair this wonderful organisation and being elected in Edinburgh is very meaningful for my new mandate.” 

Michael Herrmann, Founder and Director of the Rheingau Music Festival, has been appointed as new Honorary Member of EFA.

The Summit concluded with the handing over of Edinburgh to Budva, Montenegro.

“We are excited about the opportunity to host the Arts Festivals Summit in Budva next year. The gem of the Western Balkans has many things to offer.

We are committed to make sure delegates enjoy a fruitful and unforgettable stay., said Milena Lubarda Marojević, Director of Theatre City Budva that will host EFA’s next Arts Festivals Summit in April 2026.

During the Summit, 22 new organisations joined EFA, reinforcing EFA’s desire to increase the more diversity of its membership and adding to the Association’s relevance at a geographical and artistic level.

New members include Africa Simply The Best (Belgium), Anibar International Animation Festival (Kosovo), DokuFest (Kosovo), Festival Fabula (Slovenia), Festival Música Viva (Portugal), Food Film Fest Bergamo (Italy), I Suoni Delle Dolomiti (Italy), KotorArt International Festival (Montenegro), Maribor Theatre Festival (Slovenia), Oeiras International Piano Festival (Portugal), ReMusica Festival (Kosovo), SPRING Utrecht Performing Arts Festival (Netherlands), Turkish State Theatres (Türkiye), and Vicenza Opera Festival (Italy). Five Ukrainian festivals have been reconducted in their membership, expressing EFA’s solidarity with the country: Construction Festival, Festival of Contemporary Art “Gogolfest”, Kharkiv Music Fest, Odessa Classics Music Festival, and Ukrainian Festival Association “Art-Ethno Fest”.

Three organisations also joined as collective and affiliate members: Creative Island (United Kingdom), the Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres (AAPPAC) and the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC).

First Minister to attend Tartan Week events in New York

Visit is ‘Opportunity to promote strong business links with US’

First Minister John Swinney will undertake a series of engagements in New York as part of Tartan Week, the annual celebration of Scottish heritage and culture in the United States.

In recognition of the important role of the US as a key investment and trading partner, the First Minister will meet a number of high profile current and potential investors to promote the economic opportunities on offer in Scotland.

Speaking ahead of his visit, the First Minister said: “Scotland enjoys deep and enduring links with the US, which is both our largest inward investor, and second largest export market after the European Union.

“In 2023, exports of Scottish goods to the US were worth £4 billion. And here in Scotland, more than 700 US-owned enterprises provide employment to more than 115,000 people.

“Scotland is open for business and is one of the best places in the world to invest. We have a reputation as a world-class entrepreneurial nation, with the number of start-ups, spinouts, and scale up companies growing at pace.

“We also have the potential to become a strategic hub for future renewable energy investments, specifically by developing and scaling projects in offshore wind, green hydrogen, and energy storage.

“Tartan Week in April is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate Scottish culture, and promote economic opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic.

“I am looking forward to attending this week’s Tartan Week events, meeting our dynamic diaspora, and engaging with some of our biggest current and potential investors. I want to showcase Scotland’s progressive international outlook, and our focus on innovation, sustainability and growth.”

Alan Cumming is Grand Marshal of the 2025 NYC Tartan Day Parade.

Scotland’s first Gaelic Poetry Path launches on the Isle of Skye

Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture, has launched Scotland’s first-ever Gaelic Poetry Path. Slighe nam Bàrd will provide a poetic pathway around the Isle of Skye, aiming to introduce local, national, and international visitors to a taste of Gaelic heritage, song, and poetry. 

From the 21st of March (World Poetry Day), tourists will be able to collect a free Slighe nam Bàrd – Poetry Paths pamphlet and accompanying map from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, located in Sleat in the Isle of Skye.*

The pamphlet will provide a detailed guide around Skye’s stunning landscape, stopping at seven major locations connected to a Gaelic song or poem. A QR code for each location provides a recording of the poem/song to enable people to listen to the Gaelic audio in the environment that inspired the creative piece.

SMO Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Skye, April 2023

Abigail Burnyeat, Head of Research at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture: “People often come to Skye for its beautiful scenery, but the aim of Slighe nam Bàrd is to showcase the connection between Gaelic culture and Skye’s mesmerising landscape.

“Through Slighe nam Bàrd, tourists will be able to engage with the landscape whilst listening to Gaelic poems and songs that add to our understanding of the locations on the trail, giving people an opportunity to experience for themselves the Gaelic culture and history at the heart of the Isle of Skye.”

Meg Bateman, Professor in Gaelic Language and Culture at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and Bàrd a’ Chomuinn Ghàidhealaich: Slighe nam Bàrd provides a one-day poetic road-trip around the Isle of Skye, allowing people to engage with local Gaelic poetry whilst immersed in the Skye landscape.

“The pathway consists of seven poems/songs, each one carefully chosen to represent a range of locations, centuries, styles, and subjects to give a full flavour of Skye’s poetic Gaelic landscape.

“From Somhairle MacGill-Eain to Màiri Mhòr nan Òran, the pathway will guide people from the south of the island to the very north, discovering Gaelic poetry along the way.”

Chris Taylor, VisitScotland Regional Destination Development Director, said: “Sabhal Mòr Ostaig’s Poetry Path provides a unique way to tell Skye and Scotland’s story and is an immersive entry-point for visitors to experience the Gaelic language.

“We know that visitors, especially international, think Gaelic enhances their holiday. With that in mind, Slighe nam Bàrd may even inspire them to try out a course at Scotland’s National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture.

“At VisitScotland we recognise that Gaelic is an integral part of Scotland’s heritage, identity, and culture. It can provide an extra layer to the authentic Scottish experience and to our many visitors.”

The Slighe nam Bàrd project was funded by: the University of the Highlands and Islands KE/ Innovation Challenge Fund.

Edinburgh International Festival to breaks boundaries in a year exploring ‘The Truth We Seek’

1–24 AUGUST 2025 

eif.co.uk / @edintfest

  • Edinburgh International Festival’s 2025 programme offers opportunities to experience world-class artists in thought-provoking and unconventional ways – including an eight-hour choral extravaganza, a distinctive outdoor promedande dance piece and a circus infused opera. Audiences can also get involved in many Festival performances, from an outdoor mass-singlaong to interactive concerts where the audience chooses the repertoire.
  • The Truth We Seek is the timely theme underpinning the 2025 International Festival, as contemporary reflections on the world are presented alongside time-honoured tales, a place where fact meets faith and fiction.
  • The International Festival is the ultimate destination to experience world-class performances, with an exciting lineup of 133 performances, bringing 7 world premieres, 8 UK and Scottish premieres and 2 European premieres to Edinburgh this year. Programme highlights include the world premiere of a gripping new play by James Graham starring Brian Cox, a new narrative ballet from Scottish Ballet, and Festival debuts from rising classical stars – violinist Maria Dueñas, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, and 2024 BBC Young Musician of the Year Ryan Wang.

From 1-24 August 2025, Edinburgh International Festival presents a hand-picked selection of leading international and local artists in the world’s Festival City, with 24 days of world-class opera, dance, music and theatre.  

The 2025 programme is defined by world-class artists bringing audiences and artists closer together in creative and unexpected ways. Audiences can experience an opera incorporating circus performers for a breathtaking fusion of music and acrobatics in Orpheus and Eurydice, a site-specific promenade dance work that transforms Edinburgh’s Old College Quad into a stage for Dance People, and enjoy Bach through a new lens in Breaking Bach, where hip-hop meets 18th-century period instruments. 

Audiences can also actively participate in performances—whether by shaping the repertoire in a real-time Classical Jam or sharing their dreams to inspire Hanni Liang’s piano recital, Dreams. For those seeking deep immersion, eight-hour choral epic The Veil of the Temple invites audiences to sit on beanbags and lose themselves in waves of harmonies, and a choral workshop welcomes amateur singers that will preview a powerful performance at the Festival’s Closing Concert, Mendelssohn’s Elijah. 
 
Now in its third year under Festival Director and celebrated Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, the 2025 programme welcomes over 1,700 artists from 42 nations to Edinburgh —including 600 from Scotland—across 133 performances. The Truth We Seek is the theme underpinning the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival, inviting audiences to explore their relationship with truth – within themselves, between one another and in understanding our place in the world.  

Ensuring that cost is not a barrier to live performance, over 50,000 tickets (more than half of all tickets available for the 2025 International Festival) are priced at £30 or under. Thousands of free tickets are available for young musicians, NHS staff and community groups, and £10 Affordable Tickets are available for all performances for anyone who needs them. 

Programme highlights include:

  • Two major world premiere productions in UK theatre and dance: Make It Happen, an eye-opening take on the 2008 financial crisis set in Edinburgh, starring Brian Cox (Adam Smith) and Sandy Grierson (Fred Goodwin), written by one of Britain’s most in-demand playwrights, James Graham; and Mary, Queen of Scots, an iconic story of one of Scotland’s most famous women, unconventionally told with choreography by Sophie Laplane that blends classicism with modernity, and costuming that nods to haute couture and punk.
  • In a landmark year for choral music, marking the 60th Anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, this renowned chorus of singers from around Scotland performs at the monumental Opening Concert, as well as Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (this year’s grand Closing Concert). The programme also includes the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists performing works by Handel and Bach.
  • This year’s Opening Concert features the aforementioned Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Monteverdi Choir and the National Youth Choir of Scotland, offering a rare chance to hear John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple in all its eight-hour glory, a colossal universal prayer performed in full for the second time ever in the UK.
  • The International Festival’s opening weekend welcomes all to Princes Street Gardens’ Ross Bandstand for The Big Singalong, a free event led by Stephen Deazley, artistic director of Edinburgh’s Love Music Community Choir. The following day, Norwegian folk ensemble Barokksolistene returns to lead The Ceilidh Sessions, an afternoon of music and storytelling inspired by the Gaelic ceilidh tradition.
  • The most substantial programme of Polish artists in the International Festival’s 78-year history is featured in celebration of the UK/Poland season 2025. Performances include two concerts from one of the Festival’s resident orchestras in 2025, NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, and a showcase of Polish artists and repertoire from the Wrocław Baroque Ensemble, VOŁOSI, Piotr Anderszewski, Bomsori Kim to 2024’s BBC Young Musician of the Year, Ryan Wang.
  • Operatic works include a fully staged Australian reimagining of Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice featuring acrobatics; the UK premiere of Book of Mountains and Seas from Chinese composer Huang Ruo, puppeteer Basil Twist and Ars Nova Copenhagen, and two operas in concert: Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Chorus and Puccini’s Suor Angelica with the London Symphony Orchestra, with a line-up of international soloists.
  • Residencies bringing leading orchestras to the International Festival for an extended, more sustainable stay that features multiple performances and community engagement. This year, three outstanding orchestras provide distinctive insights into their collective sound and ambitions: Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra 2, Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum, and the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of new Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano.
  • Intimate morning recitals at The Queen’s Hall feature International Festival debuts from on-the-rise young virtuoso María Dueñas and Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, as well as a cohort of exceptional Scottish artists including the Dunedin Consort with John Butt and Scottish percussionist Colin Currie with peerless vocal group The King’s Singers.
  • A wider orchestral programme that stretches the globe to welcome the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and the NCPA Orchestra from Beijing, with conductor Myung Whun Chung and Bruce Liu as piano soloist. The London Philharmonic Orchestra returns to the International Festival for the first time in a decade under the baton of Edward Gardner with a stunning programme that features pianist Beatrice Rana performing Rachmaninoff’s inspired Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Holst’s The Planets, a seven-movement orchestral suite journeying through the cosmos to explore our true place in the universe.
  • Aurora Orchestra makes its International Festival debut with Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, in the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death. A work that grapples with the pursuit of truth under oppression, audiences are seated on beanbags as Aurora delve into the symphony from the inside out with a conversational presentation in the round, and then in full later that evening, performed entirely from memory.
  • The Scottish premiere of Figures in Extinction from the internationally acclaimed Nederlands Dans Theater, visionary choreographer Crystal Pite and ground-breaking theatre-maker Simon McBurney (Complicité), which confronts powerful truths about humanity’s impact on the world and art’s meaning in the face of mass destruction.
  • A stellar dance offering continues with works that expand the experience for audiences: Maqamat and Omar Rajeh take performance outdoors to Edinburgh University’s College Quad in promenade with Dance People; the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment combine hip hop with Bach in Breaking Bach with choreographer Kim Brandstrup, and an International Festival debut from Australian disabled dancer Dan Daw about identity and kink.
  • Leading theatre-makers exploring truth via the climate emergency, colonialism and politics, with Cliff Cardinal’s take on Shakespeare in As You Like It A Radical Retelling, a spectacular nonverbal work from Belgian theatre collective FC Bergman in Works and Days and a remount of acclaimed play Faustus in Africa!, 30 years after its original premiere, from Handspring Puppet Company and William Kentridge.
  • The Hub, the International Festival’s headquarters on the Royal Mile, brings together a hand-picked variety of global musical styles and traditions, experienced up close in an intimate performance space, including Up Late gigs from artists such as Kathryn Joseph and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. In a truly international programme, musicians from 16 countries including Australia, China, Poland, Norway and across East to West Africa come to the home of the Festival. 

READ THE BROCHURE HERE

The future of the Brunton in Musselburgh

Key stakeholders, local councillors, community leaders and representatives from the arts sector gathered for a roundtable discussion on the future of the Brunton Hall in Musselburgh.

Many MSPs and MPs were present including, Martin Whitfield MSP, Colin Beattie MSP, Alison Johnston MSP, Jeremy Balfour MSP, Douglas Alexander MP, and Paul McLennan MSP, showing cross-governmental support for the project.

The meeting, held in response to ongoing challenges facing the historic venue, focused on potential redevelopment, public consultation, and securing funding for a sustainable future.

The discussion, led by key figures such as Sarah Boyack MSP, Councillor Andy Forrest, and representatives from The Brunton Trust and Creative Scotland, highlighted the urgent need to address the deteriorating condition of the Brunton. Following the end of COVID-19, the top floor of the theatre was deemed unsafe, leading to staff being relocated to other areas such as Haddington. Plans are now in place to mothball the building by June.

A major point of discussion was the importance of public consultation, ensuring the local community has a say in the theatre’s future. Stakeholders agreed that any plans must be community-led, with an open call for ideas to explore creative solutions.

As one representative noted: “There will be someone in the public that will have an idea that no one has thought of yet.”

A full public consultation will launch in the next 3-4 weeks to gather community input and assess potential uses for the space.

The estimated cost of demolishing the building currently stands at £3.6 million, a figure likely to increase. Identifying funding sources is the priority, including engagement with key groups.

Discussions included the potential for the Brunton to serve as a multi-use arts centre, supporting local artists and attracting larger productions. The idea of expanding event offerings, such as weddings and touring productions, was also raised as a potential revenue stream.

Calls were made for greater collaboration with the Edinburgh International Festival and other arts organisations to ensure Musselburgh remains a cultural hub.

“There’s no point having an International Festival City if there is nothing offered in Musselburgh,” said a participant.

With strong concerns over maintaining Brunton’s identity and cultural value, stakeholders emphasised that any redevelopment must preserve the theatre’s role as a community hub. Creative Scotland representatives acknowledged the challenges but expressed optimism about potential funding opportunities if a clear and viable plan is developed.

The roundtable concluded with a commitment to keeping the community informed and involved in the next steps. Further meetings will be scheduled as feasibility studies progress, ensuring a transparent and collaborative approach to shaping the future of the Brunton Hall.

Commenting, Foysol Choudhury MSP stated: “The Brunton has always been known for being a vibrant community hub.

“Finding venues can be tough, and it is very important, as the Edinburgh International Festival attracts thousands of visitors each year, that we prioritise areas like Musselburgh.”

Edinburgh TRADFEST 2025 – FULL PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED

FESTIVAL DATES: Friday 2 May – Monday 12 May 2025

Edinburgh Tradfest is delighted to announce full details of its 2025 programme of traditional music, storytelling, film, workshops, talks, ceilidhs, and special events taking place at various venues across the city, thanks to continued support from The National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the William Grant Foundation.

The festival’s music programme kicks off on Friday 2 May at the Queen’s Hall with Scotland’s most sought-after piper and composer Ross Ainslie performing with the Sanctuary Band, and special guest Terra Kin.  

Then, over the 11 days of the festival, there will be live music every night at the Traverse Theatre, Folk Film screenings predominately at the Cameo, and storytelling, music and special events taking place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. 

Some of the musicians headlining include folk song sensation and multi award-winner Siobhan Miller; Scots singer of the Year 2024 Beth Malcolm; Aberdeenshire’s crowning light, folk singer and Young Musician of the Year 2025 Ellie Beaton; national treasure Kathleen MacInnes; and cutting-edge piper Finlay MacDonald performing with his band which includes award-winning piper Ailis Sutherland (Hecla), guitarist/piper Ali Hutton (Ross & Ali, Old Blind Dogs, Treacherous Orchestra, Tryst), and drummer Paul Jennings (Croft No 5, Treacherous Orchestra). Plus, there will be a special event on Sunday 4 May featuring the music and enduring legacy of piper Martyn Bennett.

Also headlining are virtuoso English folk trio Leveret; leading Scots fiddler Lauren MacColl who will be playing tunes from her most recent album Haar; and Mary Macmaster (The Poozies) who will curate and perform as part of this year’s festival commission For the Love of Trees with some of Scotland’s finest musicians: Amy Macdougall (vocals), Donald Hay (percussion), Mairearad Green (accordion, pipes), Pete Harvey (cello) and Ciarán Ryan (banjo/fiddle). 

Other Scottish highlights include Morag Brown and Lewis Powell-Reid who perform pacy traditional tunes from Scotland and as far afield as the Balkans; Divergence (Freya Rae, Siannie Moodie and Tim Lane) so named because of their passion for playing non-traditional instruments in traditionally inspired music; cinematic alt-folk duo Rhona Stevens and Joseph Peach; and the unmissable annual #WorldPlayAStrathspey Day presented by Hands Up for Trad and featuring Rory Matheson (piano), and Anna Robertson, Catriona Price and Adam Sutherland (fiddle) who will take audiences through some of the world’s best known strathspeys, reels and marches.

International musicians headlining at this year’s festival include Pelkkä Poutanen whose music weaves together Scandinavian and Finno-Ugric folk singing with electronic, roots and traditional world folk influences; Canadian singer Catherine MacLellan, and English folk musician Lucy Farrell, also based in Canada, who’ll be presenting a selection of self-penned songs; legendary Kora virtuoso Seckou Keita who has been dubbed the ‘Hendrix of the Kora’; Finnish power-fiddle duo Teho; and the Hartwin Trio from Belgium.

Plus, The Travelling Janes led by Ali Affleck bring their unique mix of Americana, jazz and blues; and The Hot Seatsfrom Virginia whose combination of old-time, bluegrass and country make them the hot ticket of the festival.

At the Scottish Storytelling Centre there will be stories and music from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (A Necklace of Stories) with Bea Ferguson and Heather Yule; and tales and tunes from in the North East Bothy Tradition with ballad singer Allan Taylor, fiddler Karin Paterson and storytellers Phyll McBain and Jackie Ross; storyteller Rachel Pugh and harpist Lucy Nolan present Bog Standard the gripping true story of a tip off which led a rookie journalist to one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century; and MAIK (folksingers Jamie Cook and Kirsty Law) present folks songs in Scots and Cumbrian dialects; whilst cinematic-folk duo Dowally and innovative French drummer Philippe Boudot celebrate the release of their album Ici et Là-Bas.

Plus, TuFlamenco celebrates the rich cultural heritage of Spain with a tribute to poet Garcia Lorca, with Inma Montero (dance & vocals), Danielo Olivera (guitar & vocals), and Inés Álvarez Villa (storyteller); the Sangstream Scots Folk Choir led by renowned musician Corrina Hewat perform a cappella in Let Them Be Heard; and author Stuart McHardy launches his new book Scotland’s Ancient Goddess: Hidden in Plain Sight exploring the mythology of creation and the pre-Christian beliefs of the Scottish people, published by Luath Press.The popular Hearth Fire Sessions return with storytellers Dougie Mackay and Niall Moorjani, Moroccan filmmakers/storytellers Tizintizwa and musician Evie Waddell.

The Folk Film Gathering returns to Edinburgh Tradfest this year with a selection of films from the world’s archives including a screening of Ukranian film The Enchanted Desna (1964) directed by Alexander Dovzhenko’s widow Yuliya Solntseva; Fertile Memory (1981) the first full length film to be shot within the occupied Palestinian West Bank ‘Green Line’ introduced by Scottish-Palestinian poet Nada Shawa; George Nasser’s Ila Ayn (1957) the first ever Lebanese film to screen at Cannes; The Nouba of the Women of Mount Chenoua (1977) which explores the intergenerational experiences and histories of women in Algeria and of speech and silence;  and Icelandic film The Juniper Tree (1990) which stars Björk in an early performance of this adaptation of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Staying with horror, O’r Ddaear Hen (1981) the first horror film to be made in the Welsh language and set in a council house in Bangor about a mysterious stone head, will be screening; along with the Scottish premiere of the new restoration of cult classic of Irish independent cinema The Outcasts (1982); and a series of short dark Gaelic tales from 1996-1999 introduced by Edinburgh-based Gaelic storyteller Martin McIntyre who is also doing a separate session introducing Gaelic storytelling culture and history at the Storytelling Centre.

Also from Scotland there will be a screening of Paper Portraits (2025) a new documentary from Gerda Stevensoncelebrating the history and working people of Penicuik’s paper mills; and a rare chance to see Emma Davie’s Flight(1997) exploring how Scottish traditions continue to be expressed in Canada by the diaspora. 

Finally on Sunday 11 May, to close the Folk Film Festival, in collaboration with the Storytelling Centre, there will be a full day of screenings celebrating independent film in Scotland through the lens of filmmaker Douglas Eadie hosted by poet Jim Mackintosh and author James Robertson who will be joined in conversation by former colleagues of Eadie including Robbie Fraser, Fiona MacDonald and Christeen Winford.

Screenings include Haston-A Life in the MountainsAn Ceasnachadh – An Interrogation of a Highland Lass (with Kathleen MacInnes, Dolina MacLennan and Kenny MacRae) and Down Home (with Aly Bain).

Families, at the Scottish Storytelling Centre can enjoy a morning of face painting and crafting ahead of the traditional May Day Parade down the High Street to the Pleasance; storytelling with the Beltane Fire Society; a traditional street games, rhymes and songs session with Claire McNicol and Fergus McNicol; sensory stories and play with Ailie Finlay; and family ceilidhs. 

In addition, the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin (EYG) returns with a three-day workshop programme supported by the William Grant Foundation for 13-18 year olds and led by some of Scotland’s finest musicians; and Claire Hastings hosts an hour-long relaxed session for babies and upwards, playing songs to join in with, accompanied by Ali Hutton and Adam Sutherland. 

Other workshops held during the festival include: a singing workshop with Chandra Mather where participants will learn a selection of traditional songs from around the world picked up by Chandra on musical travels; a strathspey fiddle workshop with Lauren MacColl; tune writing with one of Scotland’s finest composers Adam Sutherland; and a masterclass in Highland piping from master of the pibroch Allan Macdonald.  Plus, the Traditional Music Forum will present an interactive and fun workshop for musicians who want to improve their patter and be better storytellers on stage.

Rebellious Truth, this year’s popular talk presented in collaboration with Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, features Joy Dunlop who will give an insight into her Gaelic journey; from learning Gaelic songs phonetically to being the face of multi-platform learning brand SpeakGaelic. Joy is in high demand as a singer, broadcaster and Scottish step-dancer and is a well-known face on BBC Scotland, BBC Alba and host of the BBC Radio Scotland Traditional Musician of the Year. The talk will also include a special performance  by musician Fraser Fifield.

ETF Spotlight, this year’s showcase concert presenting some of the most exciting new performers in folk and traditional music today returns with artist and musician Miwa Nagato-Apthorp, Parsisonic led by Iranian duo Aref Ghorbani and Amir Hossein Feyzi, and trad fusion band Dlù.

And, finally Masks: An Exhibition by Lorraine Pritchard (5 April to 12 May)displaying hand-crafted Venetian masks will be on at the Storytelling Centre alongside a series of photographs and a new behind-the-scenes documentary by Franzis Sanchez shot in Edinburgh and during this year’s Venice Carnival. This exhibition is part of the Pomegranates Festival of world trad dance and presented by the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland.

Alan Morrison, Head of Music at Creative Scotland said: “Scotland’s traditions are vividly expressed and deeply felt in our words, our images and our music. As the beating heart of our national identity, they’re filtered through the 2025 Tradfest programme and across Edinburgh’s stages and screens, its walls and its streets.

“Supported by Creative Scotland through National Lottery funds, this important and inspiring event recognises not only the roots of Scotland’s revived folk culture in the city’s past but also the international ambition of our increasingly diverse country’s future.

“Thought-provoking, thrilling and straight-up fun in equal measure, Tradfest is a highlight on our cultural calendar.”

Douglas Robertson and Jane-Ann Purdy, co-producers of Edinburgh Tradfest said:

Each year we give ourselves the challenge of building a festival packed with more superlative music than the preceding year. With more shows booked for 2025 than ever before, we think we have achieved that. It’s a wonderful mix of the exotic and the home grown. Virtuoso visitors from Senegal, Finland, Belgium, Canada, the US and England will grace Edinburgh’s stages joining an extremely strong Scottish contingent. Appearing are some of the best singers that Scotland has ever produced, the finest fiddle-players, harpists, strings-players, pianists, and, of course, pipers. We are also indebted to our partners at TRACS and the Folk Film Gathering who have provided a fabulous array of storytelling, family events and folk cinema that complement the musical offerings perfectly.”


Daniel Abercrombie, Head of Programming, Scottish Storytelling Centre said:
“Edinburgh Tradfest is a great time of the year, with lighter nights and a chance for storytellers to celebrate with musicians, dancers and other creatives. We are offering a variety of traditional arts activities for all to enjoy, with several exciting new performances alongside workshops and family events. It is a highlight of our calendar at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and we’re delighted to be involved once again.”

Jamie Chambers, Folk Film Gathering said: “We are really excited to be collaborating with our sister festival Tradfest once again, to present a programme of films screenings, in parallel with their exciting music programming. Our 2025 programme features a number of very rare films from Scotland, alongside films from Algeria, Iceland, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Ukraine and Wales, and provides a chance to once again consider how we look outwards from Scotland towards the rest of the world. We hope to see you there.”

Edinburgh Tradfest 2025 will run from Friday 2 May – Monday 12 May. For tickets and more information visit edinburghtradfest.com   

Jennie Lee lecture – Arts for Everyone

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy made an inaugural lecture at the Royal Shakespeare Company yesterday, marking the 60th anniversary of the first ever arts white paper:

In 2019, as Britain tore itself apart over Brexit, against a backdrop of growing nationalism, anger and despair I sat down with the film director Danny Boyle to talk about the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. 

That moment was perhaps the only time in my lifetime that most of the nation united around an honest assessment of our history in all its light and dark, a celebration of the messy, complex, diverse nation we’ve become and a hopeful vision of the future. 

Where did that country go? I asked him. He replied: it’s still there, it’s just waiting for someone to give voice to it. …

13 years later and we have waited long enough. In that time our country has found multiple ways to divide ourselves from one another. 

We are a fractured nation where too many people are forced to grind for a living rather than strive for a better life. 

Recent governments have shown violent indifference to the social fabric – the local, regional and national institutions that connect us to one another, from the Oldham Coliseum to Northern Rock, whose foundation sustained the economic and cultural life of the people of the North East for generations. 

But this is not just an economic and social crisis, it is cultural too.

We have lost the ability to understand one another. 

A crisis of trust and faith in government and each other has destroyed the consensus about what is truthfully and scientifically valid. 

Where is the common ground to be found on which a cohesive future can be forged? How can individuals make themselves heard and find self expression? Where is the connection to a sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves? 

I thought about that conversation with Danny Boyle last summer when we glimpsed one version of our future. As violent thugs set our streets ablaze, a silent majority repelled by the racism and violence still felt a deep sense of unrest. In a country where too many people have been written off and written out of our national story. Where imagination, creation and contribution is not seen or heard and has no outlet, only anger, anxiety and disorder on our streets.

There is that future. 

Or there is us.

That is why this country must always resist the temptation to see the arts as a luxury. The visual arts, music, film, theatre, opera, spoken word, poetry, literature and dance – are the building blocks of our cultural life, indispensable to the life of a nation, always, but especially now. 

So much has been taken from us in this dark divisive decade but above all our sense of self-confidence as a nation. 

But we are good at the arts. We export music, film and literature all over the world. We attract investment to every part of the UK from every part of the globe. We are the interpreters and the storytellers, with so many stories to tell that must be heard. 

And despite everything that has been thrown at us, wherever I go in Britain I feel as much ambition for family, community and country as ever before. In the end, for all the fracture, the truth remains that our best hope… is each other.

This is the country that George Orwell said “lies beneath the surface”. 

And it must be heard. It is our intention that when we turn to face the nation again in four years time it will be one that is more self-confident and hopeful, not just comfortable in our diversity but a country that knows it is enriched by it, where everybody’s contribution is seen and valued and every single person can see themselves reflected in our national story. 

You might wonder, when so much is broken, when nothing is certain, so much is at stake, why I am asking more of you now.

John F Kennedy once said we choose to go to the moon in this decade not because it is easy but because it is hard.

That is I think what animated the leaders of the post war period who, in the hardest of circumstances knew they had to forge a new nation from the upheaval of war. 

And they reached for the stars.

The Festival of Britain – which was literally built out of the devastation of war – on a bombed site on the South Bank, took its message to every town, city and village in the land and prioritised exhibitions that explored the possibilities of space and technology and allowed a devastated nation to gaze at the possibilities of the future. 

So many of our treasured cultural institutions that still endure to this day emerged from the devastation of that war.

The first Edinburgh Festival took place just a year after the war when – deliberately – a Jewish conductor led the Vienna Philharmonic, a visible symbol of the power of arts to heal and unite. 

From the BBC to the British Film Institute, the arts have always helped us to understand the present and shape the future. 

People balked when John Maynard Keynes demanded that a portion of the funding for the reconstruction of blitzed towns and cities must be spent on theatres and galleries. But he persisted, arguing there could be “no better memorial of a war to save the freedom of spirit of an individual”.

Yes it took visionary political leaders. 

But it also demanded artists and supporters of the arts who refused to be deterred by the economic woes of the country and funding in scarce supply, and without hesitation cast aside those many voices who believed the arts to be an indulgence.

This was an extraordinary generation of artists and visionaries who understood their role was not to preserve the arts but to help interpret, shape and light the path to the future.

Together they powered a truly national renaissance which paved the way for the woman we honour today – Jennie Lee – whose seminal arts white paper, the first Britain had ever had, was published 60 years ago this year. 

It stated unequivocally the Wilson government’s belief in the power of the arts to transform society and to transform lives.

Perhaps because of her belief in the arts in and of itself, which led to her fierce insistence that arts must be for everyone, everywhere – and her willingness to both champion and challenge the arts – she was – as her biographer Patricia Hollis puts it  – the first, the best known and the most loved of all Britain’s Ministers for the Arts.

When she was appointed so many people sneered at her insistence on arts for everyone everywhere..

And yet she held firm.

That is why we are not only determined – but impassioned – to celebrate her legacy and consider how her insistence that culture was at the centre of a flourishing nation can help us today. 

This is the first in what will be an annual lecture that gives a much needed platform to those voices who are willing to think and do differently and rise to this moment, to forge the future, written – as Benjamin Zephaniah said – in verses of fire.

Because governments cannot do this alone. It takes a nation.

And in that spirit, her spirit. I want to talk to you about why we need you now. What you can expect from us. And what we need from you. …

George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “Imagination is the beginning of creation. 

“you imagine what you desire,

“you will what you imagine – 

“and at last you create what you will.”

That belief that arts matter in and of themselves, central to the chance to live richer, larger lives, has animated every Labour Government in history and animates us still. 

As the Prime Minister said in September last year: “Everyone deserves the chance to be touched by art. Everyone deserves access to moments that light up their lives.

“And every child deserves the chance to study the creative subjects that widen their horizons, provide skills employers do value, and prepares them for the future, the jobs and the world that they will inherit.”

This was I think Jennie Lee’s central driving passion, that “all of our children should be given the kind of education that was the monopoly of the privileged few” – to the arts, sport, music and culture which help us grow as people and grow as a nation. 

But who now in Britain can claim that this is the case? Whether it is the running down of arts subjects, the narrowing of the curriculum and the labelling of arts subjects as mickey mouse –  enrichment funding in schools eroded at the stroke of the pen or the closure of much-needed community spaces as council funding has been slashed. 

Culture and creativity has been erased, from our classrooms and our communities. 

Is it any wonder that the number of students taking arts GSCEs has dropped by almost half since 2010? 

This is madness. At a time when the creative industries offer such potential for growth, good jobs and self expression in every part of our country  And a lack of skills acts as the single biggest brake on them…bar none, we have had politicians who use them as a tool in their ongoing, exhausting culture wars. 

Our Cabinet, the first entirely state educated Cabinet in British history, have never accepted the chance to live richer, larger lives belongs only to some of us and I promise you that we never ever will. 

That is why we wasted no time in launching a review of the curriculum, as part of our Plan for Change. 

To put arts, music and creativity back at the heart of the education system. Where they belong. 

And today I am delighted to announce the Arts Everywhere fund as a fitting legacy for Jennie Lee’s vision – over £270 million investment that will begin to fix the foundations of our arts venues, museums, libraries and heritage sector in communities across the country.

 We believe in them. And we will back them.

Because as Abraham Lincoln once said, the dogmas of a quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. 

Jennie Lee lived by this mantra. So will we. 

We are determined to escape the deadening debate about access or excellence which has haunted the arts ever since the formation of the early Arts Council. 

The arts is an ecosystem, which thrives when we support the excellence that exists and use it to level up. 

Like the RSC’s s “First Encounters” programme. Or the incredible Shakespeare North Playhouse in Knowsley where young people are first meeting with spoken word.

When I watched young people from Knowsley growing in confidence, and dexterity, reimagining Shakespeare for this age and so, so at home in this amazing space it reminded me of my childhood.

Because in so many ways I grew up in the theatre. My dad was on the board of the National, and as a child my sister and I would travel to London on the weekends we had with our dad to see some of the greatest actors and directors on earth – Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Tom Baker, Trevor Nunn and Sam Mendes. We saw Chekhov, Arthur Miller and Brecht reimagined by the National, the Donmar and the Royal Court.

It was never, in our house, a zero-sum game. The thriving London scene was what inspired my parents and others to set up what was then the Corner House in Manchester, which is now known as HOME. 

It inspired my sister to go on to work at the Royal Exchange in Manchester where she and I spent some of the happiest years of our lives watching tragedy and farce, comedy and social protest. 

Because of this I love all of it – the sound, smell and feel of a theatre. I love how it makes me think differently about the world. And most of all I love the gift that our parents gave us, that we always believed these are places and spaces for us.

I want every child in the country to have that feeling. Because Britain’s excellence in film, literature, theatre, TV, art, collections and exhibitions is a gift, it is part of our civic inheritance, that belongs to us all and as its custodians it is up to us to hand it down through the generations. 

Not to remain static, but to create a living breathing bridge between the present, the past and the future.…

My dad, an English literature professor, once told me that the most common mistakes students make – including me – he meant me actually – was to have your eye on the question, not on the text. 

So, with some considerable backchat in hand, I had a second go at an essay on Hamlet – why did Hamlet delay? – and came to the firm conclusion that he didn’t. That this is the wrong question. I say this not to start a debate on Hamlet, especially in this crowd, but to ask us to consider this:

If the question is – how do we preserve and protect our arts institutions? Then access against excellence could perhaps make sense. I understand the argument, that to disperse excellence is somehow to diffuse it. 

But If the question is – how to give a fractured nation back its self confidence? Then this choice becomes a nonsense. So it is time to turn the exam question on its head and reject this false choice. 

Every person in this country matters. But while talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. This cannot continue. That is why our vision is not access or excellence but access to excellence. We will accept nothing less. This country needs nothing less. And thanks to organisations like the RSC we know it can be achieved.…

I was reflecting while I wrote this speech how at every moment of great upheaval it has been the arts that have helped us to understand the world, and shape the future. 

From fashion, which as Eric Hobsbawm once remarked, was so much better at anticipating the shape of things to come than historians or politicians, to the angry young men and women in the 1950s and 60s – that gave us plays like Look Back in Anger – to the quiet northern working class rebellion of films like Saturday Night Sunday Morning, This Sporting Life and Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. 

Without the idea that excellence belongs to us all – this could never have happened. What was once considered working class, ethnic minority or regional – worse, in Jennie Lee’s time, it was called “the provinces” which she banned – thank God. These have become a central part of our national story.….

I think the arts is a political space. But the idea that politicians should impose a version of culture on the nation is utterly chilling.

When we took office I said that the era of culture wars were over. It was taken to mean, in some circles, that I could order somehow magically from Whitehall that they would end. 

But I meant something else. I meant an end to the “mind forged manacles” that William Blake raged against and the “mind without fear” that Rabindranath Tagore dreamt of.

Would this include the rich cultural heritage from the American South that the Beatles drew inspiration from, in a city that has been shaped by its role in welcoming visitors and immigrants from across the world? Would it accommodate Northern Soul, which my town in Wigan led the world in?  

We believe the proper role of government is not to impose culture, but to enable artists to hold a mirror up to society and to us. To help us understand the world we’re in and shape and define the nation. 

Who know that is the value that you alone can bring. 

I recently watched an astonishing performance of The Merchant of Venice, set in the East End of London in the 1930s. In it, Shylock has been transformed from villain to  victim at the hands of the Merchant, who has echoes of Oswald Mosely. I don’t want to spoil it – not least because my mum is watching it at the Lowry next week and would not forgive me- but it ends with a powerful depiction of the battle of Cable Street. 

Nobody could see that production and fail to understand the parallels with the modern day. No political speech I have heard in recent times has had the power, that power to challenge, interpret and provoke that sort of response. To remind us of the obligations we owe to one another.

Other art forms can have – and have had – a similar impact. Just look at the ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office. It told a story with far more emotional punch than any number of political speeches or newspaper columns. 

You could say the same of the harrowing paintings by the Scottish artist Peter Howson. His depiction of rape when he was the official war artist during the Bosnian War seared itself into people’s understanding of that conflict. It reminds me of the first time I saw a Caravaggio painting. The insistence that it becomes part of your narrative is one you never ever forget.

That is why Jennie Lee believed her role was a permissive one. She repeated this mantra many times telling reporters that she wanted simply to make living room for artists to work in. The greatest art, she said, comes from the torment of the human spirit – adding – and you can’t legislate for that. 

I think if she were alive today she would look at the farce that is the moral puritanism which is killing off our arts and culture – for the regions and the artistic talent all over the country where the reach of funding and donors is not long enough – the protests against any or every sponsor of the arts, I believe, would have made her both angered and ashamed.  

In every social protest  – and I have taken part in plenty – you have to ask, who is your target? The idea that boycotting the sponsor of the Hay Festival harms the sponsor, not the festival is for the birds. 

And I have spent enough time at Hay, Glastonbury and elsewhere to know that these are the spaces – the only spaces – where precisely the moral voice and protest comes from. Boycotting sponsors, and killing these events off,  is the equivalent of gagging society. This self defeating virtue signalling is a feature of our times and we will stand against it with everything that we’ve got.

Because I think we are the only [political context removed] force, right now, that believes that it is not for the government to dictate what should be heard.

But there is one area where we will never be neutral and that is on who should be heard.

Too much of our rich inheritance, heritage and culture is not seen. And when it is not, not only is the whole nation poorer but the country suffers. 

It is our firm belief that at the heart of Britain’s current malaise is the fact that too many people have been written off and written out of our national story. And, to borrow a line from my favourite George Eliot novel, Middlemarch, it means we cannot hear that ‘roar that lies on the other side of silence’.  What we need – to completely misquote George Elliot – is a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life.’ We’ve got to be able to hear it.

And this is personal for me.

I still remember how groundbreaking it was to watch Bend it Like Beckham – the first time I had seen a family like ours depicted on screen not for being Asian (or in my case mixed race) but because of a young girl’s love of football. 

And I was reminded of this year’s later when Maxine Peake starred in Queens of the Coal Age, her play about the women of the miners’ strike, which she put on at the Royal Exchange in Manchester. 

The trains were not running – as usual – but on one of my council estates the women who had lived and breathed this chapter of our history clubbed together, hired a coach and went off to see it. It was magical to see the reaction when they saw a story that had been so many times about their lives, finally with them in it.

We are determined that this entire nation must see themselves at the centre of their own and our national story. That’s a challenge for our broadcasters and our film-makers. 

Show us the full panoply of the world we live in, including the many communities far distant from the commissioning room which is still far too often based in London. 

But it’s also a challenge for every branch of the arts, including the theatre, dance, music, painting and sculpture. Let’s show working-class communities too in the work that we do – and not just featuring in murder and gangland series. 

Part of how we discover that new national story is by breathing fresh life into local heritage and reviving culture in places where it is disappearing.

Which is why we’re freeing up almost £5 million worth of funding for community organisations – groups who know their own area and what it needs far better than Whitehall. Groups determined to bring derelict and neglected old buildings back into good use. These are buildings that stand at the centre of our communities. They are visible symbols of pride, purpose and their contribution and their neglect provokes a strong emotional response to toxicity, decline and decay. We’re determined to put those communities back in charge of their own destiny again. 

And another important part of the construction is the review of the arts council, led by Baroness Margaret Hodge, who is with us today. When Jennie Lee set up regional arts associations the arts council welcomed their creation as good for the promotion of regional cultures and in the hope they would “create a rod for the arts council’s back”. 

They responded to local clamour, not culture imposed from London. Working with communities so they could tell their own story. That is my vision. And it’s the vision behind the Arts Everywhere Fund that we announced this morning.

The Arts Council Review will be critical to fulfilling that vision and today we’re setting out two important parts of that work – publishing both the Terms of Reference and the members of the Advisory Group who will be working with Baroness Hodge, many of whom have made the effort to join us here today.

We have found the Jennie Lee’s of our age, who will deliver a review that is shaped around communities and local areas, and will make sure that arts are for everyone, wherever they live and whatever their background. With excellence and access.

But we need more from you. We need you to step up.

Across the sporting world from Boxing to Rugby League clubs, they’re throwing their doors open to communities, especially young people, to help grip the challenges facing a nation. Opening up opportunities. Building new audiences. Creating the champions of the future. Lots done, but much more still to do.

Every child and adult should also have the opportunity to access live theatre, dance and music – to believe that these spaces belong to them and are for them. We need you to throw open your doors. So many of you already deliver this against the odds. But the community spaces needed – whether community centres, theatres, libraries are too often closed to those who need them most. 

Too often we fall short of reflecting the full and varied history of the communities which support us. That’s why we have targeted the funding today to bring hope flickering back to life in community-led culture and arts – supported by us, your government, but driven by you and your communities.

It’s one of the reasons we are tackling the secondary ticket market, which has priced too many fans out of live music gigs. It’s also why we are pushing for a voluntary levy on arena tickets to fund a sustainable grassroots music sector, including smaller music venues. 

But I also want new audiences to pour in through the doors – and I want theatres across the country to flourish as much as theatres in the West End. 

I also want everyone to be able to see some of our outstanding art, from Lowry and Constable to Anthony Gormley and Tracey Emin. 

Too much of the nation’s art is sitting in basements not out in the country where it belongs. I want all of our national and civic galleries to find new ways of getting that art out into communities.

There are other challenges. There is too much fighting others to retain a grip on small pots of funding and too little asking “what do we owe to one another” and what can I do.

Jennie Lee encouraged writers and actors into schools and poets into pubs. She set up subsidies so people, like the women from my council estate in Wigan, could travel to see great art and theatre. She persuaded Henry Moore to go and speak to children in a school in Castleford, in Yorkshire who were astonished when he turned up not with a lecture, but with lumps of clay. 

There are people who are doing this now. The brilliant fashion designer Paul Smith told me about a recent visit to his old primary school in Nottingham where he went armed with the material to design a new school tie with the kids. These are the most fashionable kids on the block.

I know it’s been a tough decade. Funding for the arts has been slashed. Buildings are crumbling. And the pandemic hit the arts and heritage world hard. 

And I really believe that the Government has a role to play in helping free you up to do what you do best – enriching people’s lives and bringing communities together – so with targeted support like the new £85m Creative Foundations Fund that we’re launching today with the Arts Council we hope that we’ll be able to help you with what you do best.

SOLT’s own research showed that, without support, 4 in 10 theatres they surveyed were at risk of closing or being too unsafe to use in five years’ time. So today we are answering that call. This fund is going to help theatres, galleries, and arts centres restore buildings in dire need of repairs. 

And on top of that support, we’re also getting behind our critical local, civic museums – places which are often cultural anchors in their village, town or city. They’re facing acute financial pressures and they need our backing. So our new Museum Renewal Fund will invest £20 million in these local assets – preserving them and ensuring they remain part of local identities, to keep benefitting local people of all ages.

In my town of Wigan we have the fantastic Museum of Wigan Life and it tells the story of the contribution that the ordinary, extraordinary people in Wigan made to our country, powering us through the last century through dangerous, difficult, dirty work in the coal mines. 

That story, that understanding of the contribution that Wigan made, I consider to be a part of the birthright and inheritance of my little boy growing up in that town today and we want every child growing up in a community to understand the history and heritage and contribution that their parents and grandparents made to this country and a belief that that future stretches ahead of them as well. Not to reopen the coal mines, but to make a contribution to this country and to see themselves reflected in our story.  

But for us to succeed we need more from you. This is not a moment for despair. This is our moment to ensure the arts remain central to the life of this nation for decades to come and in turn that this nation flourishes. 

If we get this right we can unlock funding that will allow the arts to flourish in every part of Britain, especially those that have been neglected for far too long, by creating good jobs and growth, and giving children everywhere the chance to get them. 

Our vision is not just to grow the economy, but to make sure it benefits people in our communities. So often where i’ve seen investments in the last decade and good jobs created, I go down the road to a local school and I see children who can see those jobs from the school playground, but could no more dream of getting to the moon than they could of getting those jobs. And we are determined that that’s going to change. 

This is what we’ve been doing with our creative education programmes (like the Museums and Schools Programme, the Heritage Schools Programme, Art & Design National Saturday Clubs and the BFI Film Academy.) These are programmes we are proud to support and ones I’m personally proud that my Department will be funding these programmes next year.

Be in no doubt, we are determined to back the creative industries in a way no other government has done. I’m delighted that we have committed to the audiovisual, video games, theatre, orchestra and museums and galleries tax reliefs, as well as introducing the new independent film and VFX tax reliefs as well.

You won’t hear any speeches from us denigrating the creative industries or lectures about ballerinas being forced to retrain.

Yes, these are proper jobs. And yes, artists should be properly remunerated for their work. 

We know these industries are vital to our economic growth. They employ 1 in 14 people in the UK and are worth more than £125 billion a year to our economy.  We want them to grow. That is why they are a central plank of our industrial strategy.

But I want to be equally clear that these industries only thrive if they are part of a great artistic ecosystem. Matilda, War Horse and Les Miserables are commercial successes, but they sprang from the public investment in theatre. 

James Graham has written outstanding screenplays for television including Sherwood, but his first major play was the outstanding This House at the National and his other National Theatre play Dear England is now set to be a TV series. 

You don’t get a successful commercial film sector without a successful subsidised theatre sector. Or a successful video games sector without artists, designers, creative techies, musicians and voiceover artists.  

So it’s the whole ecosystem that we have to strengthen and enhance. It’s all connected.

The woman in whose name we’ve launched this lecture series would have relished that challenge. She used to say she had the best job in government

 “All the others deal with people’s sorrows… but I have been called the Minister of the Future.”

That is why I relish this challenge and why working with those of you who will rise to meet this moment will be the privilege of my life.…

I wanted to leave with you with a moment that has stayed with me.

A few weeks ago I was with Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, who has become a great friend. We were in his old constituency of Leigh, a town that borders Wigan. And we were talking about the flashes, which in our towns used to be open cast coalmines. 

They were regenerated by the last Labour government and they’ve now become these incredible spaces, with wildlife and green spaces with incredible lakes that are well used by local children. 

We had a lot to talk about and a lot to do. But as we looked out at the transformed landscape wondering how in one generation we had gone from scars on the landscape to this, he said, the lesson I’ve taken from this is that nature recovers more quickly than people. 

While this government, through our Plan for Change, has made it our mission to support a growing economy, so we can have a safe, healthy nation where people have opportunities not currently on offer – the recovery of our nation cannot be all bread and no roses. Our shared future depends critically on every one of us in this room rising to this moment. 

To give voice to the nation we are, and can be. 

To let hope and history rhyme.

So let no one say it falls to anyone else. It falls to us.

Between Women: Travelling Gallery returns with new exhibition

Travelling Gallery

Travelling Gallery is delighted to be partnering with the University of St Andrews this February to present the exhibition Between Women.

The exhibition features the work of Franki Raffles, Sylvia Grace Borda, Sandra George, Carolyn Scott and Niu Weiyu.

Between Women takes images made by the photographer Franki Raffles from her base in Edinburgh during the 1980s and 1990s as a starting point to explore relationships between gender, labour, education, care and activism in documentary photography since the 1950s in Scotland and internationally. Raffles’ photographs will appear alongside images by Sylvia Grace Borda, Sandra George, Carolyn Scott and Niu Weiyu which together illuminate how gender is produced and reproduced through workplaces, housing, healthcare, and particularly schools, playgrounds and nurseries, across urban and rural landscapes.

In examining the relationships and power structures between women, this exhibition takes inspiration from two projects by Raffles. The first is a trip Raffles made in 1984–85 to the Soviet Union and Asia, including an extended period in China, during which her concern with women at work crystallised.

The second, Picturing Women, was part of a 1988–89 educational initiative organised by Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, aimed at helping young people analyse photographs, for which Raffles studied the working relationships between women at a school. These two projects provide a framework through which connections and comparisons with Niu Weiyu, Carolyn Scott, Sandra George and Sylvia Grace Borda’s photographs emerge.

One of the few women photographers to gain professional recognition in twentieth-century China, Niu worked for state-run media organisations and produced a large number of photographs that portray women’s roles as workers throughout the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Carolyn Scott’s documentary photographs images of children and families in Newcastle’s Rye Hill area where she lived between 1967-68 observe the relationships and socialisation forged through play, but also the effects of deindustrialisation on the community.

Sandra George’s photographs of Edinburgh during the 1980s and 1990s attest to the importance of community educational groups and spaces in activism and organising, alongside public demonstrations and gatherings.

Sylvia Grace Borda’s studies of schools, leisure centres and nurseries in the New Town of East Kilbride reflect on the complex legacies of post-1945 Welfare State architecture from the perspective of the early 2000s.

Together, these photographs highlight the possibilities for solidarity between women in sites and spaces spanning the local and the global, but also the importance of recognising differences and intersectional identities that account for the constructs of gender, sexuality, race, disability and class in activism and organising.

Launching in Edinburgh at the Community Wellbeing Centre on Monday 17 February from 11am to 5pm, the exhibition will tour throughout the week visiting the following locations:

  • Tuesday 18 February, 10am – 4pm – Glasgow Women’s Library
  • Wednesday 19 February, 10am – 4pm – Dundee International Women’s Centre
  • Thursday 20 February, 10am – 4pm – Fluthers Car Park, Cupar
  • Friday 21 February, 10am – 4pm – East Sands Leisure Centre, St Andrews

Between Women is curated by Vivian K. Sheng and Catherine Spencer, with support from the University of St Andrews Impact and Innovation Fund.

Culture and Communities Convener, Councillor Val Walker said: “It’s brilliant to see the Travelling Gallery return for 2025.

“It’s crucial that art and culture is as accessible to as many people as possible. I’m proud that through our ongoing support of the Travelling Gallery, and the recent increased Creative Scotland investment, art is brought straight into the hearts of towns and cities across Scotland. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to visit the exhibition, bringing together work which illuminates how gender is produced and reproduced through workplaces.

“Here in Edinburgh, we’re clear that that our residents should be able to easily access a variety of cultural activities, and this exhibition brings art closer to people’s communities.”

Louise Briggs, Curator, Travelling Gallery said:We’re delighted to be working with Vivian, Catherine, and the University of St Andrews to present this exhibition.

“We’re looking forward to discussing the work of each artist with our visitors, who we believe will have their own stories and experiences to share that chime with many of the references (and local sites) found in the work on display.”

With thanks to the University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums, Edinburgh Napier University, Franki Raffles Estate, Craigmillar Now, Gaofan Photography Museum, Sylvia Grace Borda and Carolyn Scott.

Travelling Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in a bus. Since 1978 it has been bringing exhibitions to communities throughout Scotland. We recognise that art can change lives and we create fair conditions and remove barriers to allow access and engagement to audiences in their own familiar surroundings.

The gallery space offers an open and welcoming environment for people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to discover and enjoy contemporary art. Over the past forty years, Travelling Gallery has brought innovative exhibitions to every part of Scotland reaching hundreds of thousands of visitors and school pupils.

Travelling Gallery is a ‘not for profit’ organisation, regularly funded by Creative Scotland and supported by the City of Edinburgh Council.

For more information, please vist the Travelling Gallery website.        

The gallery has ramp access for wheelchairs; hearing loop and will have large print format exhibition interpretation.

Artist Biographies

Sylvia Grace Borda is an artist working with photography, net art, video installation, and eco-art, who has undertaken projects in Canada, Finland, Northern Ireland, Latvia, Scotland, Ethiopia and Taiwan. Her artwork is concerned with establishing systems of public understanding that underpin literacy, advocacy, and action to conserve the built and natural environments. In Scotland, she focused on New Town architecture in EK Modernism (2005–10) and A Holiday in Glenrothes (2008), and created an edible photo artwork, the Lumsden Biscuit (2016–17). Her roles at Queen’s University Belfast (2008–10); University of Salford (2011), and University of Stirling (2012–15) have focused on visual arts and social histories, digital engagement and innovation. In 2023, she received the Mozilla Foundation Rise 25 award in recognition of her transformative media arts practice to democratize the web for communities. Exhibitions include National Galleries of Scotland, RIAS, Street Level Photoworks, and The Lighthouse, Glasgow.

Sandra George (1957–2013) was an Edinburgh-based social documentary photographer, multi-disciplinary artist, and a community worker in Craigmillar. George studied Photography at Napier University, Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, and Community Education at The University of Edinburgh. For over 30 years she worked extensively as a freelance photographer for organisations and publications including the Sentinel, Tollcross Community Newspaper, Shelter, Craigmillar Festival News, and Craigmillar Chronicle, and taught photography and art to communities across Edinburgh. She started working in community development in Wester Hailes in the 1980s, and in Craigmillar from the 1990s, and was an integral member of initiatives including McGovan house, the Thistle Foundation, and the Craigmillar Arts Centre. Alongside a commitment to community work, anti-racism and social justice, George’s photographs document children at play and their educational and leisure environments. George’s archive is held at Craigmillar Now, a community-led arts and heritage organisation in Craigmillar.

Franki Raffles (1955–1994) was a feminist photographer specialising in social documentary. Raffles studied philosophy at the University of St Andrews from 1973–1977, where she was an active member of the Women’s Liberation Movement. After experimenting with photography while living on the Isle of Lewis, she moved to Edinburgh in 1983, and started documenting women at work, as well as organising and campaigning. Raffles frequently collaborated with Edinburgh District Council’s Women’s Committee, including on the project To Let You Understand: Women’s Working Lives in Edinburgh (1989) Zero Tolerance campaign against domestic violence in the early 1990s. She travelled widely throughout her career, including extended trips to Asia and the Soviet Union. Raffles’ work is currently the focus of a major exhibition Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Her archive is held at the University of St Andrews.

Carolyn Scott is an artist working in photography, film and installation. She was raised in Edinburgh and now lives in Cupar, Fife. Carolyn lived in the Rye Hill district of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the late 1960s where, in the spring and early summer of 1968, using a twin-lens Rollieflex camera, she photographed the immediate area in which she lived. Her  Rye Hill Social Documentary Photography Collection images were unseen for nearly 40 years until she revisited them during her studies at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee University, where she received a BA and MFA. Carolyn’s work has been shown in the Cupar Arts Festival, St Andrews Photography Festival, Royal Scottish Academy and The Centre for Theology and Inquiry, Princeton. The Rye Hill Social Documentary Photography Collection is now held at the University of St Andrews. 

Niu Weiyu (牛畏予) (1927–2020) worked as a photojournalist and photographer for North China Pictorial, Southwest Pictorial, and the News Photography Bureau. She later joined the Xinhua News Agency, where she worked for various branches from the 1950s to the 1980s. Weiyu was one of the few women photographers during this period, who were often assigned to feature women workers, such as the first women pilots, as well as public figures and officials in the Chinese Communist Party, and she travelled extensively throughout her career.

Vivian K. Sheng is an art historian working on contemporary Chinese and East Asian art in transnational contexts and an assistant professor in contemporary art at the University of Hong Kong. In Fall 2022, she was a Global Fellow hosted by the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews. Her research investigates the intricate interrelations between women, domesticity and art practices in contexts of ever more intensified cross-border movements and exchanges, provoking reflections on notions of identity, home and belonging beyond the territorial fixity of natio-state. Relevant issues are explored in her forthcoming monograph book— The Arts of Homemaking: Women, Migration and Transnational East Asia. Her writings have appeared in ASAP/Journal, Art JournalPARSE Journal,Third Text,  Sculpture Journal, Yishu and INDEX JOURNAL.

Catherine Spencer is an art historian at the University of St Andrews. She is currently working on a book entitled Abstract Subjects: Art, Borders and ‘Britain’, and co-editing Grassroots Artmaking: Political Struggle and Activist Art in the UK, 1960–Present with Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani and Amy Tobin (Bloomsbury, forthcoming). Her writing on Franki Raffles has been published in Art History (2022) and the catalogue for the 2024–5 exhibition Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism, Campaign Works at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. In 2021, she co-curated Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism with Caroline Gausden, Kirsten Lloyd, and Nat Raha at Glasgow Women’s Library. Her essays have appeared in Art HistoryArt JournalARTMarginsTate PapersParallax and Oxford Art Journal.