Protecting the Past. Securing the Future. Sustaining Scotland’s Cultural Life.
Securing a future for the arts at Summerhall
Summerhall is far more than a building. It is a distinctive cultural and community asset in Edinburgh, a home for artists and audiences, and a place where creativity, innovation and collaboration thrive.
Its contribution to Edinburgh and Scotland’s cultural identity, creative economy and international reputation must be fully understood and recognised in any plans for its future.
Summerhall Arts wants to remain at Summerhall and will support a viable proposal that secures our future and enables us to continue delivering our year-round programme of arts and cultural activity.
Our ambition is to see Summerhall continue as a thriving cultural destination, protecting the building’s unique character while enabling its artistic contribution to grow. We recognise that any future proposal must be financially realistic and operationally sustainable.
For Summerhall Arts, viability also means having sufficient affordable, appropriate and usable space to continue supporting and nurturing the wider community, artists, presenting work and engaging audiences throughout the year.
Why Summerhall Arts matters
Supported by Creative Scotland multi-year funding, Summerhall Arts has established itself as a leading supporter of the arts in Scotland, both locally and nationally. Building on Summerhall’s legacy of diverse performance and exhibitions, Summerhall Arts has developed new and exciting professional artist development opportunities for emerging and established artists.
Our work extends beyond presenting performances and exhibitions. We provide opportunities for artists to develop their practice, support new creative work and contribute to a wider ecosystem of festivals, theatres and cultural organisations across Scotland and beyond.
The 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe showcased Summerhall Arts’ international significance, featuring work from 24 countries and a record-breaking number of award-winning shows and audience numbers. This reflects the importance of Summerhall as a cultural destination that connects Edinburgh with artists, audiences and creative communities from around the world.
The spaces within Summerhall are central to this work. Their individual character, facilities and flexibility enable a diverse programme of artistic activity that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere. Any plans for the future must fully recognise the relationship between the building, its spaces and the cultural activity they make possible.
What does a viable future look like?
We want to work constructively with AMA to help establish a viable, sustainable future for the arts at Summerhall.
For Summerhall Arts, this means securing enough affordable, appropriate and usable space to continue delivering our year-round programme successfully. It means ensuring that the practical needs of artists, performances, exhibitions and professional development are properly understood and reflected in future plans.
We believe there is an opportunity to develop a model that combines appropriate investment in the building with a sustainable programme of arts and cultural activity and community spaces. Achieving this requires a full understanding of the existing spaces, their cultural significance and their role in supporting the site’s activity.
Summerhall Arts is ready to contribute its experience and knowledge to this conversation. We want to be part of a constructive process that recognises the realities of developing a viable proposal while protecting the cultural purpose that makes Summerhall so important.
Repair, not demolish
We are concerned that the current plans appear to earmark some of Summerhall’s most distinctive spaces for demolition. These spaces are not simply parts of a building. They are integral to Summerhall’s identity, character and cultural offer. Their loss would have implications for the arts activity that takes place across the site and for the wider experience of artists, community and audiences.
We believe the potential for repair, renovation and continued cultural use deserves serious consideration as part of the search for a viable long-term solution.
Preserving Summerhall does not mean preventing change. It means recognising what makes the site special, understanding the value of its existing spaces and exploring how they can be maintained, adapted and used sustainably for the future.
Edinburgh’s reputation as the world’s festival city rests in part on distinctive cultural spaces such as Summerhall. Protecting these places helps sustain the city’s cultural identity and its ability to attract artists, audiences and visitors from across the world.
Have your say: help shape Summerhall’s future
The consultation is an important opportunity to ensure that the cultural significance of Summerhall and the needs of Summerhall Arts are properly understood by AMA as it develops its plans.
We encourage artists, audiences, cultural organisations, supporters and everyone who values Summerhall to participate. Please explain what the site means to you, why its spaces matter and why retaining an established thriving arts presence should be central to its future.
Your feedback can help demonstrate that Summerhall’s value extends far beyond the property itself. It is a cultural and community asset that supports artists, engages audiences and contributes to Scotland’s artistic life, locally, nationally and internationally.
We want to be able to count on your support not only during this consultation, but throughout the future stages of the process. A strong collective voice can help ensure that the search for viability fully considers the cultural activity the site supports and the space required to sustain it.
To view the current plans and submit your feedback, visit the consultation website:
https://summerhallconsultation.co.uk/index.php
Looking to the future
We believe Summerhall can continue to be a place where artists create, audiences discover new work and Scotland’s cultural reputation flourishes.
With a shared commitment to finding a workable solution, there is an opportunity to protect the site’s distinctive character while securing its continued contribution to cultural and community life.
Sam Gough, CEO of Summerhall Arts, says: “Whilst our intention is to remain here and work with AMA to continue the provision of arts within Summerhall, the future space needs to be viable, and we are hopeful that the plans will provide that.
“We are encouraging all those who love Summerhall and its spaces to contribute to the consultation, to help the developers understand how important they are to what makes this already thriving arts centre what it is.
“At the moment, I have not seen anything that demonstrates this.
“So many of the beautiful, special parts of Summerhall, such as the historic Anatomy Lecture Theatre, the unique Dissection Room, Tech Cube 0 and the ever-so-wonderful Royal Dick pub, are earmarked for demolition.
Our message is ‘repair, not demolish’. Edinburgh’s name as the world’s festival city rests partly on places like Summerhall. Developers, like arts organisations, are remembered for what they leave behind, and I would much rather AMA be remembered as the owner who protected it.”
Summerhall is an asset to Edinburgh and to Scotland.
We want to work towards a future that protects its cultural and community spaces, sustains the arts, health and wellbeing and enables Summerhall Arts to continue its work for generations to come.