Edinburgh festival awards round up
Dance
Drama
Literature
Crafts
Visual arts
Music
Outstanding work supported by the Scottish Arts Council across dance, theatre, music and visual art was recognised in a series of awards at this year’s Edinburgh festival. The Scottish Arts Council also hosted its annual festival reception in the new Dovecot tapestry studios, alongside Innovative Craft’s first international exhibition, supported by Scottish Arts Council Lottery funds.
Edinburgh International Festival box office celebrated its highest ever turnover this year - the final figure at the box office is estimated to be £2.63m. The increase is due in part to the widespread popularity of the dance programme.
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Edinburgh based company Janis Claxton Dance won a Herald Angel as part of the Dance Base programme for Enclosure 44: Humans (also shortlisted for a Total Theatre award). |
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A Fringe First went to Scottish Arts Council supported Dogstar productions for Tailor of Inverness which also took the Holden Street Theatre Award, and the Stage Award for Acting Excellence. Another Fringe First went to Vox Motus for Slick. Al Seed won a Herald Angel with The Foolgan and the Total Theatre Award went to The Man Who Planted Trees by Puppet State Theatre. |
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Slick by Vox Motus |
Many of Scotland’s top authors featured at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival such as Ian Rankin, Ali Smith, Alexander McCall Smith and Liz Lochhead.
The book festival also launched its own new book of specially commissioned work from four of Scotland’s most internationally acclaimed and award-winning authors: John Burnside, Janice Galloway, A L Kennedy and Don Paterson. The Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund provided funding for this project with the assessment process and funding administered by the Scottish Arts Council.
The major event of the festival period for crafts was the opening on 2 August of the refurbished former Infirmary Street baths as the new home of the Dovecot tapestry studios, with an associated gallery space of 5,500 sq ft for the exhibition of contemporary visual art and craft.
Although we did not fund this development, it provides a base for Innovative Craft, a new organisation dedicated to celebrating craft of international standard, which is in receipt of Scottish Arts Council development funding and has received a Lottery Capital grant for display equipment. Innovative Craft opened ‘Raising the Bar’ there, its first international exhibition, on the same evening.
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The Golden Record: Sounds of Earth
Edinburgh Art Festival
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In its 5th year the Edinburgh Art Festival successfully brought together the city’s galleries, museums and visual art spaces to present the best, exciting and most intriguing in the modern and contemporary visual arts. A range of events, including a city wide art late promotion, encouraged people to enjoy the full range of exhibitions on offer.
A highlight of the Festival has been the Fruitmarket’s exhibition, The House of Books Has No Windows, which has brought the compelling installation work of Canadians Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller to Edinburgh for the first time. The exhibition was awarded a Herald Angel and is attracting record visitor numbers. |
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The Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, in its inaugural year gave the Edinburgh International Festival £277,916 towards the Scottish Opera/Edinburgh International Festival co-production of The Two Widows which was awarded a Herald Angel. |
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Two Widows by Scottish Opera | |