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 of the Summit. Sir Angus was ambitious for Scotland and proud of its impact throughout the world. Whether welcoming people of different cultures or creeds […]
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 sky which – from a human perspective at least – sits atop of the Earth. The two deities were wedded, and this almighty union generated […]
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 Parkinson, UK Minister for Arts, joined by Prof Anne Bamford OBE of City of London Corporation, space scientist and board member for UNBOXED: Creativity in […]
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 Fund for Economic Development generates annual revenues of US$ 4.5 billion, channelling all surplus revenues into further development activities. Yet by integrating cultural development alongside […]
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 Council, joined by Sarah Yearsley of Engage Scotland, renowned cognitive scientist and author Professor Guy Claxton, and Fairouz Nishanova, director of the Aga Khan Music […]
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 year’s digital programme event with the Festival. Our second On Demand release, from August 2021, is Culture and Sustainability: What does internationalism mean in a […]
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, it’s a well-orchestrated composite, a constellation of more clearly identifiable habits of mind, all of which are capable of being practised in school.” This understanding […]
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 cultural shift? Beyond COP26 sees Angus Roberston MSP, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture (Scottish Government) joined by Professor Carly McLachlan (Tyndall […]
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 in harmony, with balance achieved through organic and interdependent growth, it was immense expanses of liveable surface and such a vast store of natural resources […]
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 practices and create new platforms and programmes. We have greatly enjoyed and appreciated every contact with our contributors and constituency. Our deeply gratitude goes to […]
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 were drafted. Outside the streets and public spaces filled with the clamour and passion of activists and artists engaged in a global dialogue and working […]
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 of encountering some beguiling and brilliant painting, or the rousing effect of powerful writing brought to life by a talented thespian – the effect of […]
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 local director and from a remote production director, who offered more instructions about energy usage and bulb wattage than on the actor’s movements or line […]
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 Politics returns this year as a digital festival with global reach. With events running 20–24 October, it brings together a range of voices to discuss […]
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 at the MIT Media Lab, the two together should represent “the split personality of every designer and architect working today.” Traditional engineering follows a systems-centred […]
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 first of our digital events, we asked what internationality means in a time of no travel and are now reflecting on one of the […]
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 via a process of tessellating influence and experimentation. Listening to the creative voices of other people enable us to expand and enrich our understanding of […]
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 global audience, and giving agency to the individual in finding new international experiences. We have also seen digital engagement reduce the enormous carbon footprint created […]
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 and the overexploitation of natural resources in the media, to forward thinking innovations aimed at reducing our reliance of fossil fuels, including the current plant-based […]
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, revolves around the question of central vs local access; where before we would travel from city to city to work, explore and experience, during the […]
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 clocks to robot cleaning devices, technology geared at making our lives easier is woven into the fabric of many societies across the globe, some would […]
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 the world we live in is characterised by fusions of identities, cultures and even industries. As a concept, Fusion and indeed the Fusion movement, acknowledges […]
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 and the Arts, is a UK based charity with international reach and a quest to support innovation for social good. First launched in 1998 the […]
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 a staple of lockdown life. Netflix added 16 million new subscribers within the first quarter of 2020 alone, according to The New York Times. Cultural […]
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 our lives look like they might one day return to some semblance of normality, individuals, organisations and government and public sector bodies are once again […]
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 result of the ongoing restrictions is that many of us have more time on our hands and far less to do with it. For […]
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 2021. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, which took hold across the world in 2020, at the time of writing many are still dependent […]
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 develop with the people and communities that use them. Defined by UNESCO as ‘a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill, as well as the instruments, […]
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 worked with the World Health Organisation on a report examining the links between arts and cultural engagement and health outcomes. Fancourt reviewed the findings from […]
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 Haldane. The culture industry has had a tough pandemic. Theatres struggling, TV and film production adapting slowly, live music, galleries and cinemas trying to survive. […]
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. Being a teenager from a deprived background must be especially hard during the pandemic. But one such group of youngsters have had an advantage. They’re […]
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 resilience, improved focus and discipline are just a small number of the benefits associated with participation in Big Noise, as identified over several years of […]
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 from the government, and everyone everywhere trying to pivot as fast as possible to a constantly changing scenario. Particularly striking was how a handful of […]
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 Professor, his legacy is explored in a powerful monologue Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski, delivered for the Special Edition by Oscar-nominated actor David […]
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 themselves out of poverty drove a massive revision of its strategy resulting in a commitment to invest in organisations able to help achieve its mission […]
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 positive change in cultural policy and investment.
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 people.