When I was a music student in Sydney in the 1980s, our tight-knit group was augmented in second year by the arrival of a larger-than-life musician named Viktor. He was…
Mina Girgis is the founder of the Nile Project, an international non-profit that promotes the sustainability of the Nile River by curating innovative collaborations among musicians, university students and professionals….
As people gather in Edinburgh for the city’s programme of cultural events this summer – the city’s first summer unimpeded by restrictions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic – it is important…
Today, on Independence Day of Ukraine 2022, we are delighted to announce the third and final strand of this year’s Edinburgh International Culture Summit, Culture & Freedom. Summit 2022 coincides with…
At the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, we’re committed to putting young voices at the heart of the debate and discussion at the event. The Summit offers a unique and truly…
We are excited to announce more details of the programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Culture Summit, which includes a day dedicated to Culture & Sustainability. A speech will be…
Following last week’s announcement of the Sixth edition of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, the world’s leading gathering of Culture Ministers with artists and practitioners, today we are delighted to…
August 1947 and the residents of Edinburgh awaited a verdict with breathless anticipation. They had transformed their solemn grey city with bright decorations, floral displays, and flags to welcome performers…
Sir Angus Grossart (1937 – 2022) The partners and staff of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit are forever grateful for the leadership and generosity of Sir Angus Grossart in support…
For the Greeks, it all began with Gaea, the personification of all that is Earth. From her came Uranus, a second primordial deity that represented both the heavens and the…
Our next On Demand release is our most recent digital programme event, Creativity as a Skill: How do you teach it and why is it important? This panel sees Lord…
The Edinburgh International Culture Summit brings together Culture Ministers, artists, thinkers and arts leaders from around the world to share ideas, expertise and best practice, with a view to inspiring…
The Aga Khan Development Network operates over a thousand programmes and institutions across more than thirty countries located primarily in the poorest regions of Asia and Africa. The Aga Khan…
Our third On Demand release is our most recent digital programme event, What is the value of arts and culture in the curriculum? This panel sees Scott McDonald, Executive Director of British…
In light of news that Nicola Benedetti will succeed Fergus Linehan as Festival Director for Edinburgh International Festival from October 2022, we are pleased to release the recording of last…
What is creativity? And how do we become creative people? For internationally renowned cognitive scientist, Professor Guy Claxton, “creativity isn’t a thing, it’s not an independent faculty in the mind,…
Starting this month, we are pleased to share our Digital Programme event recordings in full on culturesummit.com. Our first On Demand release is our December 2021 event, Beyond COP26: A…
As a species, we have experienced our planet during a geological epoch known scientifically as the Holocene. The Holocene was a climactic utopia characterised by stability. It was our world…
The year 2021 has been richly productive for the Edinburgh International Culture Summit team. We have seen opportunity in trying circumstances and have embraced this chance to reassess our own…
This month all eyes turned towards the city of Glasgow as world leaders assembled for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Inside the SEC Centre negotiations commenced and pledges…
At some point in our lives, most of us have found ourselves powerfully moved by the arts. Whether it was the soaring crescendo of a musical performance, the breathless overload…
Presented in partnership with Scottish Parliament as part of Festival of Politics 2021. The sustainable provision of health care is a vital concern for all governments. Thanks to a growing…
Presenting two events within the Festival of Politics, our first event looks at the role of the arts in engaging people and communities with the urgent need for climate action…
Jean Cameron is an internationally respected cultural leader, producer and facilitator based in Glasgow. She is a Board Member of National Theatre of Scotland and a member of the Culture…
In cities across Europe and the USA, actors took to the stages of local theatres and participated within one singular production. They performed under simultaneous dual direction, both from their…
Edinburgh International Culture Summit is delighted to continue our programme of digital events with our partners, this month in collaboration with the Scottish Parliament. The 2021 Scottish Parliament’s Festival of…
Our planet has officially entered the Anthropocene, the geological age in which human activity has become the dominant influence on climate and upon the environment.
The chisel is a blunt tool used by artists to reshape matter. The Gene is a highly complex function and unit of heredity. According to Neri Oxman, a professor working…
They say you can never understand language until you have two under your belt. Reading and speaking in more than one language gives you a new sense of perspective. In…
The cultural sector thrives on a cross-pollination of people, their stories and the varied textures within them. By embracing and celebrating alternative visions, new ideas, and techniques, artistic expression develops…
While the digital experience can never replicate or replace traditional ways of engaging with culture, it does certainly facilitate several unique advantages of its own; that new possibility of a…
The plight of the planet and the impact we are having on its health is a topic of conversation we are all increasingly familiar with. From discussions of carbon emissions…
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we move and experience everyday life. One of the most fundamental changes relating to our mobility, both as individuals and as a community,…
It is hard to imagine our lives without the various and numerous bits of technology we rely upon to help us navigate our day to day. From radio playing alarm…
Thinking of the word Fusion can conjure up images of innovative types of cuisine, but some would argue that Fusion is in fact central to 21st Century life, and that…
An Introduction to the Creativity Culture & Capital platform from Nesta and a Q&A with Director of Arts Programmes and Investments Fran Sanderson Nesta, formerly the National Endowment for Science…
It is not unknown that streaming service giants such as Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and Hulu did good business in lockdown. For many, if not most, many of these platforms became…
As a global community we have been dealing with the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic for more than a year now, and as things start to slowly open up and…
The global pandemic has changed life as we know it – from how we shop and where we work, to where we can go and who we can meet, and…
The Edinburgh International Culture Summit brings together Culture Ministers, artists, thinkers and arts leaders from around the world to share ideas, expertise and best practice, with a view to inspiring…
Library of Congress launches new initiative to connect more deeply with Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other minority communities. History, as we know, is subjective and depending on who is in…
What do we know about the younger generation’s ability to distinguish fact from opinion, and a look to the future of creativity. In the era of Trump and ‘fake news’,…
The internet and the digital technology required to access it has never seemed more important to the daily success of our lives, and indeed our survival, as it does in…
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is, in brief, what happens when physical and intellectual wealth – think everything from concert halls, churches, to leisure centres, saunas and cinemas – combine and…
Arts and cultural engagement is linked with positive health and wellbeing outcomes. A scoping World Health Organisation report analyses data from over 3000 studies. In 2018 and 2019, Daisy Fancourt…
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Armstrong discusses the vital role the creative sector needs to play in our recovery and long-term future with Chief Economist of the Bank of England, Andy…
Renowned theatre critic and political and social commentator, Joyce McMillan talks to Andrew Gilmour, Executive Director of the Berghof Foundation and previously United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights on the…
Author and journalist Mark Fisher explores the impact of access to music participation with Assal Habibi, Assistant Research Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute, University of Southern California….
It feels like nothing in the world today is as it should, or was expected to be and the process of reimagining how we learn, socialise and even live side…
By Charlotte Eagar and William Stirling Mohammed walked centre stage of the vast Pentland Theatre at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. “I lived in a cellar for two years,” he…
Big Noise is an intensive, immersive model of music education which delivers benefits far beyond instrumental skills. Inspired by El Sistema, set up in Venezuela in 1975, increased confidence, greater…
Brendan Cormier, Senior Design Curator, V&A. The first days of lockdown in the UK will be remembered as strange and surreal: the news cycle in hyperdrive, every day new instructions…
Belief in humanity, even in the darkest of times is the enduring lesson of Jan Karski’s extraordinary life. A Polish World War II hero, Holocaust witness, and late beloved Georgetown…
When the Heron Foundation revolutionised its investment model it raised eyebrows and plaudits across the spectrum from small non-profits to Wall Street. Its mission to help people and communities help…
Edinburgh International Culture Summit 2020: Special Edition: The Transformational Power of Culture Stories from around the world will clearly demonstrate the transformational power of culture as told by artists, economists,…
As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on peoples and countries across the world continues to grow, the Edinburgh International Culture Summit has taken the difficult decision, in tandem with…
The Edinburgh International Culture Summit brings together Culture Ministers, artists, thinkers and arts leaders from around the world to share ideas, expertise and best practice, with a view to inspiring…
For the 2018 Culture Summit, we caught up with with Prince Théogène Niwenshuti, David Levenhal and Dr Catherine Calderwood on the relationship Culture can have on the well being of…
Prof Richard Sennett talks to us about what makes good Cultural Investment and the problems cities face today in cultural investment.
Prof Richard Sennet and Dr John Bingham-Hall talk to us about Theatrum Mundi, an organisation set up with the aim of improving the understanding of cities through education and research.
What is Culture? Why does it matter? We went across Europe to hear what people had to say.
We went to speak with artists in Edinburgh to discover what does Culture and Arts mean to them.
With the cultural centre of gravity about to shift to Edinburgh for the summer, British Council have published the Edinburgh International Culture Summit report. ‘Connecting Through Culture’ reflects discussions held…
The Edinburgh International Culture Summit Foundation is delighted to announce the appointment of Jenny Niven as its new Executive Producer. Jenny will lead the development and delivery of the fifth Edinburgh International Culture Summit in August 2020.
Culture Ministers, speakers and artists from around the world have arrived at the fourth Edinburgh International Culture Summit, held during one of the world’s greatest cultural events, Edinburgh’s summer Festivals….
OVER 100 ARTISTS, CULTURE MINISTERS INFLUENCERS AND PRACTITIONERS PREPARE TO COLLECTIVELY ADDRESS ISSUES OF CULTURAL HERITAGE, CONNECTIVITY, INVESTMENT AND WELLBEING. IN SCOTLAND’S YEAR OF YOUNG PEOPLE 2018 THE SUMMIT INCLUDES…
The theme of culture and investment seeks to explore questions such as: How should government policy balance investment in individual artists, creative communities, and buildings? The provision of elaborate arts…
The final report from the 2016 Edinburgh International Culture Summit, Culture: Building Resilient Communities explores the vital issues facing today’s policymakers and cultural sector. The report, authored by the British Council, reflects…