New artworks on a city street created by Edinburgh Sketcher to celebrate festivals' community projects
The artworks are to be displayed on hoardings on an Edinburgh street
New works celebrating major festivals’ community projects by the artist known as the Edinburgh Sketcher have been unveiled on a city street.
The postcard style drawings capture initiatives held by the festivals in conjunction with local groups and communities.
Attending events and workshops from across the Festivals’ work with local communities, organisations, charities and schools, the Edinburgh Sketcher, aka Mark Kirkham, captured their projects through a series of sketches, which were transformed into postcards for the participants to share their own stories and experiences.
These sketches and postcard responses, backed by umbrella group Festivals Edinburgh in its third year of the Festival City Stories project, are now presented as a part of an artwork takeover across hoardings on Edinburgh’s Dundee Street and Wishaw Terrace.
Projects captured in the sketches include Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival’s Latin Dance Inclusive; Edinburgh International Book Festival’s Paper Trails project; Edinburgh Art Festival’s work on World AIDS Day; Edinburgh International Festival – Welcome to the International Festival; Edinburgh International Children’s Festival’s Creative Encounters, Election performance; Generation Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe; Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s BSL Apprenticeship Programme and Edinburgh International Film Festival – In Conversation.
Mr Kirkham said: "I am so pleased to work with Festivals Edinburgh and Buildhollywood Scotland to create these sketches that showcase the great community work that many of Edinburgh’s festivals are doing as part of the Festival City Stories project.
“Seeing the work going on behind the scenes in my community and meeting the many people who are coming together to help others and to make lives easier for locals and visitors to the city has been a very positive and hopeful experience. I hope these sketches capture some of the energy of these happy occasions and lead to more people taking an interest and finding out more about the events the Edinburgh festivals are running within the city throughout the year."
Belinda McElhinney, chair of Festivals Edinburgh, said: “Residents are the lifeblood of our festivals and so it’s great to have this opportunity to highlight the year-round partnerships between the festivals and their local communities, with thanks especially to BuildHollywood Scotland for their support and to the Edinburgh Sketcher who beautifully presents the many festival community projects in his unique creative style.”
The hoardings are provided by Buildhollywood Scotland, which provides street-level poster spaces for creative projects across Scotland.
Charlotte Black, general manager of Buildhollywood Scotland, said: “Through the magic of the Edinburgh Sketcher and handwritten postcards from participants, these stories have been brought to life beautifully.
“Together, they form a series of rich visuals we’re proud to platform across our posters and billboard sites throughout the city.”
The sketches will be on display until 8 March.
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