The search is on for an aspiring Scottish artist to spend a fully funded three month residency in New York. Continue reading New York arts scholarship now open for applications
Tag: culture
Tonight: European Literature Night at North Edinburgh Arts
EUPROPEAN LITERATURE NIGHT: FRIDAY 13 MAY
North Edinburgh Arts 5 – 6.30pm
‘With the media spotlight shining so squarely on the politics of the EU referendum,’ says poet Colin Herd, ‘We think it’s important to also make space for a cultural expression of European experiences.’
Tonight, Edinburgh will welcome contemporary poets from across Europe for two events in celebration of European Literature Night.
Co-curated by Herd and Theodora Danek, in association with Edinburgh City of Literature and The Enemies Project, the poets represent some of the most exciting of cutting-edge contemporary European writing.
‘I think of Europe itself as a long never-ending poem, always emergent and always surprising, its meanings and its resonances never fixed,’ Herd says.
Following on from the success of European Literature Night 2015, this year’s celebration features 10 European and Scotland-based writers, including: Billy Ramsell, Christodoulos Makris, Nurduran Duman, Efe Duyan, Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir, Alexander Filyuta, Alessandro Burbank, Heather O’Donnell, Graeme Smith and Dominic Hale.
There will be an introductory taster event at North Edinburgh Arts Centre from 5 – 6.30pm followed by an evening extravaganza at Summerhall’s Red Lecture Theatre from 8 to 10.30pm.
As will reflect the diverse languages of Europe, some poets will choose to read in their own language (with translations) while other poets will read in English. There will also be some poets working in new media, sound and video.
Newly developed for this year, the events will also see the launch of #EuroPoem, a collective international poetry initiative, which poets and poetry-fans from across Europe are encouraged to contribute to. #EuroPoem responds to a need to explore what Europe is, means, and can be ahead of the UK’s referendum on EU membership. European writers are invited to submit two lines of poetry to the collective poem; contributions are of equal value, with no one poet setting the agenda of the poem and it will be polyvocal and multilingual.
Following its launch in Edinburgh at Summerhall, the poem will continue to emerge and evolve online through the Twitter hashtag #EuroPoem. No two versions of the poem need be the same, as poets from across Europe continue to add to this collaborative work. To join in with this unique poetry event, tweet your two lines of poetry to @edincityoflit using the hashtag #EuroPoem as part of European Literature Festival on 13th May, or email Colin Herd on europoem2016@gmail.com.
For more information and to book free tickets, follow these links:
North Edinburgh Arts Event (5 – 6.30pm)
Summerhall Event (8 – 10.30pm)
Europe, future dream!
Europe, morning to come,
borders without watchdogs,
nations with his frank laughter
thrown wide open!
‘Europa’, Adolfo Casais Monteiro
Search for sacred in music ‘as strong today as ever’
‘Scotland, now more than ever, needs to hear a wide range of perspectives rather than a narrow orthodoxy.’ – Professor Sir James MacMillan
![photography by philip gatward](https://i0.wp.com/nen.press/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/James-MacMillan.jpg?resize=660%2C806&ssl=1)
Distinguished Scottish composer and conductor, Professor Sir James MacMillan, will argue that the “search for the sacred in music is as strong today as it ever was” and is the “bravest, most radical and counter-cultural vision a creative person can have” in a lecture at Glasgow’s St. Mungo’s Museum next Thursday (19 May). Continue reading Search for sacred in music ‘as strong today as ever’
Early success for Royston Wardieburn’s Spring Chickens
Royston Wardieburn Community Centre’s new adult activities Spring Chickens group met for the first time yesterday, and by all accounts it seems the participants had an eggstra-special time! Continue reading Early success for Royston Wardieburn’s Spring Chickens
A year to celebrate
Saltire Society unveils 80th anniversary programme
A £50,000 ‘Inspiring Scotland’ funding programme for emerging Scottish talent and Scotland’s first ever online literary festival are just two of the eye-catching initiatives revealed today as part of a busy programme of activities to mark the Saltire Society’s 80th anniversary year. Continue reading A year to celebrate
Castles set to celebrate life and works of Burns
Continue reading Castles set to celebrate life and works of Burns
Fans’ right to buy? We’ll support you evermore, say Greens
Club ownership: football belongs to the fans, say Greens
The Scottish Greens are launching the latest stage in their campaign to deliver a fans’ right to buy football clubs in Scotland. Continue reading Fans’ right to buy? We’ll support you evermore, say Greens
Out of character, out of touch
Johnstone questions Marketing chief’s ‘patronising’ comments
Alison Johnstone, Scottish Green MSP for Lothian, has questioned comments by John Donnelly, chief executive of Marketing Edinburgh, in which he supported plans to turn the Royal High School into a luxury hotel and the controversial redevelopment of the St James Centre. Continue reading Out of character, out of touch
Time to Shine? Arts the way to do it!
Culture Secretary visits Youth Arts Hub
Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop toured Edinburgh’s Youth Arts Hub yesterday and met young people whose lives have been changed by the Government-funded scheme.
The Edinburgh Youth Arts Hub, called #artcore, received £289,087 of funding from Creative Scotland as part of Time to Shine, Scotland’s Youth Arts Strategy, and is one of nine youth arts hubs across Scotland designed to give young people from all backgrounds a chance to take part in the arts.
The hubs act as focal points for regional youth arts delivery, helping to nurture and celebrate ambition, enthusiasm and talent in Scotland’s young people by improving the regional infrastructure. Young people are given the chance to be involved in running of the hubs themselves.
Ms Hyslop visited the hub, based at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall in Dalmeny Street, and met apprentices working at #artcore as well as members of Youth Arts Voice Scotland, a national advisory group of young people aged 12 to 25 who ensure Time to Shine is informed by the views and needs of young people.
Ms Hyslop said: “It was great to meet some of the young people who have had a chance to participate in arts and culture thanks to Time to Shine, Scotland’s Youth Arts Strategy, and #artcore, and hear about the difference the hub is making to their lives.
“#artcore received £289,087 of funding from Creative Scotland to help it open up access to arts and creativity for children and young people in Edinburgh. We understand arts and creativity can have a huge positive impact in people’s lives, and Scotland’s nine Youth Arts Hubs aim to give young people all over the country the chance to take part.
“Culture, the arts and creativity play an important role in tackling inequality, and Time to Shine builds on the well-established links between culture, education, youth employment and personal development.
“It is not only about providing enhanced access opportunities for all of Scotland’s young people but it goes further to support meaningful career pathways for our talent of the future; be it on stage, the screen, behind the scenes or in our world-leading creative industries.
“Perhaps most importantly of all, our aim is that this engagement with culture will nurture personal qualities that will help our young people to grow confidently as citizens and towards realising their ambitions, wherever they lie in the arts or elsewhere.”
#artcore project manager Johnny Gailey said: “It’s great to have both the Cabinet Secretary, and young people from Youth Arts Voice Scotland, to visit to see how #artcore has progressed, since we got our Time to Shine funding to set up a youth arts hub in Edinburgh a year ago.
“In the past year, we have employed a team of four young apprentices to run our programme of multi-arts activity – we’ve worked with over 500 young people in a series of pilot projects involving gaming, animation, radio plays, circus skills, music, creative writing and self publishing. And we’re now at the exciting point of announcing our expanded autumn arts programme at sites throughout the city, as well as launching our new print social enterprise, Out of the Blueprint.”
Joan Parr, Creative Scotland’s Head of Creative Learning said:
“Placing young people at the centre of the strategy’s aims and ambitions is a core principle of Time To Shine and we are delighted by the extent to which the Time To Shine implementation programme has so far taken its lead from young people.
“#Artcore Edinburgh is very much a youth led Arts Hub and therefore provides the ideal setting for our national Youth Arts Voice Scotland group to reflect with the Cabinet Secretary on what’s been achieved through Time To Shine to date, and what can still be achieved in supporting Scotland’s young people to flourish and achieve in and through the arts and creativity.”
Blair Boyle, YAVS Member, said: “As YAVS we are delighted to be presenting the progress of Time To Shine to the Cabinet Secretary. We are playing a key role alongside Creative Scotland and Young Scot in the development of the strategy implementation programme and we think it’s vital that young people continue to have a strong voice at this level influencing policy and decision making.
“We are proud that Scotland has such a powerful arts strategy for young people and are excited to be at #artcore today to be able to share with the Cabinet Secretary the breadth and depth of the work that is now happenening across the country.”
Chief Executive of Young Scot Louise Macdonald said: “We are really lucky that there is such a wealth of creative talent right here in Scotland and that there are young people who are so passionate about championing it.
“The young people involved in Youth Arts Voice Scotland are nothing short of inspirational in their drive and ambition to make the arts more accessible to young people right across Scotland. Their hard work and enthusiasm is encouraging young people right across the country get involved in arts programmes, securing our future as a creative nation.
“I am proud that we, in partnership with Creative Scotland, have been able to bring these young people together, so they can meet, discuss and ultimately grow their passion together with other likeminded young people.”
The Prentice Centre’s guid fur a laugh!
With two free fun courses starting in October, The Prentice Centre in Granton Mains is the place to be for fans of Scottish culture this autumn …
‘Guid fer a Laugh’ takes a seriously funny look at Scottish comedy over the years. The course starts on Tuesday 6 October from 6 -8pm and runs for ten weeks (and maybe more if there are calls for an encore!)
A bit more highbrow (but only a wee bit!) is ‘An Introduction to the History of Scottish Theatre’. This free ten-week course starts on Monday 5 October from 1.30 – 3.30pm and includes theatre visits.
Both courses are free. To book your place or for further information call The Prentice Centre on 552 0485.
A pure cornucopia of Scottish culture, so it is!