Ibero-American Documentary Festival
19th April till 2nd May
This is the eighth edition of the documentary festival, which celebrates and promotes Ibero-American culture in Scotland. The theme of the 2021 festival is ‘Art as a Need’, and the event will feature documentaries from Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin-American filmmakers.
This year’s festival is, as expected, an online experience. But with restrictions expected to be lifted at the end of April, organisers have left some wiggle room, offering a glimmer of hope that if everything goes to plan, and we finally reach beyond lockdown, there’s a chance of real world festival action. Fingers and toes crossed for that.
For more information and to stay up to date with the latest Ibero-American Documentary Festival news, visit the Iberodocs website.
10 Years of Summerhall
Summerhall, Edinburgh – 26th April onwards
Nearly a year after closing due to lockdown, Summerhall has continued to provide hope to artists and creatives, crowdfunding an essential £67,000 in the process. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out their 10th-anniversary exhibition online. To celebrate a decade of the venue’s history, ten contributors, amongst them artists, residents and audience members, were asked to write, draw or paint a piece that best reflected their relationship with the iconic building. Contributors include Peter Dibdin, SHHE, Mamoru Iriguchi, and Jenni Fagan.
Summerhall’s Royal Dick Courtyard Bar reopens to the public on 26th April, and bookings are already being taken – best book ahead, as spaces are certain to be limited. Together we can look forward to a (socially distanced) pint/glass/drink of sheer unadulterated pleasure.
For more information, to check out the online exhibition, or to book a table for that glorious, glorious beverage, visit the Summerhall website.
Another Time, Another Place
The Scottish Gallery, online –28th April till 29th May
Artist Victoria Crowe OBE and poet Christine de Luca have teamed up over lockdown to each create 12 works of art that they feel best express themselves and how they experienced the global crisis.
Crowe, battling serious illness during lockdown, created 12 paintings, while de Luca’s collection of 12 poems were also inspired by the pandemic. Both say their ideas were in some way stimulated from the grounding of planes worldwide and the resulting clarity of the night sky. De Luca’s poems being directly influenced by Crowe’s paintings help create a connection, linking both sets of creative ideas.
Alongside the collaborative painting and poetry project, The Michael Cuddington Trust sponsored young musicians and composers to create a new song cycle based on both Crowe and de Luca’s works.
For more information about the exhibition, visit The Scottish Gallery website.
Constantine Stairwell Project
Ongoing from 19th March
Edinburgh-based artist Constantine has launched a new type of art installation, aiming to allow art and culture to become more readily available and more accessible to everyone in the city. Launched on 19th March, the aim is to set up private art exhibitions in various Edinburgh closes. The artist hopes that this can help build trust in the community, allow art to be experienced from a new perspective, and support people to once again enjoy art in its physical form.
For more information or to find out where the installations are being hosted, visit Constantine the Artist on Facebook.
Show Me: A Festival of Workshops for Producers & Creators
23rd till 26th April
A weekend of workshops has been designed to allow aspiring creative producers, self-producing artists (SPAs), and producers throughout the industry to develop and evolve their creative process. The two-hour workshops are being hosted by specialists in individual aspects of the creative process. Workshop titles include Basic Budgeting, Who’s Not in the Room, Producing: Proper Job, Honest!, and Balancing Passion and Resilience. The workshops will also be live-transcribed using otter.ai (an artificial intelligence note/transcribing system which is definitely on SNACK’s best pal list). Participants will be given an audio recording and transcription of the entire workshop, allowing them to refer back whenever they choose.
The event includes but is not limited to: workshops on marketing, pitching, budgeting, audience reach, career advice, and social media promotion, as well as plenty of others.
Full weekend pass holders will also receive invitations to several other exclusive workshops.
Edinburgh Tradfest
Online: 30th April till 10th May
Edinburgh Tradfest is set to return this year with an online programme showcasing a wealth of talented home-grown and international traditional artists. It will move online for the first time, with a programme of recorded and live streamed music concerts, folk films, and daily podcasts.
The main programme will be broadcast daily and presented as a series of nine podcasts. Episodes will explore the history of traditional music in Scotland, as well as featuring tracks and interviews from some of Tradfest’s 2020 line-up, including Lizabett Russo and Kinnaris Quintet. Also as part of the Festival, the Scottish Storytelling Centre will host the online launch of Scotland Online: A Directory of Musicians (Friday 7th May, 8pm), a comprehensive and ever-expanding list of musicians working and recording in Scotland.
The festival will kick off on Friday 30th April at 8pm with an hour long performance entitled Shetland Springs, curated by Catriona Macdonald. The finale of will be the much anticipated Rebellious Truth (Monday 10th May, 8pm) live streamed from Edinburgh’s St Cecilia’s Hall.
20/20 Hindsight: Twenty Days of Womxn’s Works
From 10th April
20/20 HINDSIGHT is a virtual showcase of womxn’s art that people might’ve missed in the shitstorm that was the last 12 months. Each day over 20 days they will highlight some of their favourite writing, art and music. Many of the artists are from in and around Edinburgh (where they are based), but there are also creators from further afield. They’re looking at albums, story anthologies, novels, lit mags, comics, visual art, nonfiction, and more, showcasing a diverse range of talents and experience, and covering a range of themes and issues.
Follow along at @bluntknifeco, on bluntknife.co, or by subscribing to their newsletter
Main photo credit: Oli Cliff
