Five things you need to know today
Royal patronage, the RNLI Open Day, singing and cycling - Dan needs your help, and Leith Central Community Council speak out about student flats.
Dan Abrahams needs help!
Dan Abrahams is a music composer and a keen supporter of active travel who lives in Edinburgh. He has been in touch to tell us about his latest creative work in which he will be mixing music and cycling by collaborating with German artist Jan Kamensky who creates visual utopias. Dan needs support for his work and has begun a fundraiser which you can find here.
As well as some donations (which will be match funded by Spokes up to £1,000) he also needs cyclists to be extras in the video being filmed in July.
Dan said: "My new cycling anthem, ‘Amsterdam’, is about how Amsterdam became so great for cycling, and asks why we couldn’t have that infrastructure too. It's a more dancey, fun vibe than Our Streets.
"I want to make an amazing video, and I’m going to be collaborating with German artist Jan Kamensky, who makes incredible ‘visual utopia’ animations…
"It’s a very fun concept, and will need lots of Edinburgh cyclists as extras.
"I’m doing this fundraiser to hire the director, cinematographer and animator. Edinburgh cycling organisation Spokes has very kindly offered to match all donations up to £1000 so if you donate say twenty quid, it will actually be forty quid!
"I want this video to reach way more people than Our Streets, and to people who might not normally see it.
"There’s a lot of despair in the world at the moment, rightly so, and I hope this song and video can contribute to a positive vision of what our future can look like!"
Here is Dan asking for a little help:
Exhibition, free talk and guided tour at Dalkeith Palace
On Friday a large retrospective of painting and printmaking from the late Edinburgh based painter and much loved Leith School of Art tutor Paul Martin opens at Dalkeith Palace.
The final works of this artist are being shown for the first time, alongside a retrospective of nearly 50 years of painting, printmaking, film and installation.
Paul Martin began his studies in the late 1960's at a Birmingham School of Art dominated by Abstract Expressionism, before moving to the Royal Academy whose more traditional methods focused largely on life-drawing. Neither approach proved entirely congenial, but Paul described those years as ones of 'productive disagreement'. Renowned for his innovative painterly practice, using beeswax, resins, pigments, bitumen, ash and other organic materials, Paul Martin has exhibited widely both at home and abroad (including four solo exhibitions at Bourne Fine Art - now The Fine Art Society), and has works in the collections of The Royal Academy, The British Museum and the BBC. Over the course of his career he garnered many awards including The British Institution Prize for Printmaking and The Royal Academy Awards for Painting and Printmaking.
‘Where Echoes Rest’ is at Dalkeith Palace from 27 to 29 June.
The artist and art historian, Dr Andrew Paterson, will be giving a free talk and a guided tour of the exhibition on Saturday 28th June at 10.30am, 2pm and again at 3.30pm in which he will offer a personal response to the works themselves, and also look at the artistic, literary and philosophical influences behind them. Dr Paterson, for many years a colleague and friend of Paul Martin, has a wealth of experience in leading gallery tours at the National Galleries of Scotland for both students and the general public, and his talk, ‘The Restoration of Abundance’, promises to be both informative and entertaining. These events are free, but booking is recommended as places will be limited. Dr Andrew Paterson is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and lectures at Leith School of Art and at the Centre for Open Learning. He is the author of Late Antique Portraits and Early Christian Icons: The Power of the Painted Gaze.
Leith Central Community Council speak out on student housing
The Leith Central Community Council (LCCC) has spoken out about the proliferation of Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) which they say exploits gaps in national and local planning rules - building dense blocks on small plots". The community council also point out that such developments do not carry with them a requirement to provide affordable housing, and they say there is "limited community input".
Their draft policy is to oppose any new developments of this kind.
The community council state in the paper below: "Leith Central Community Council (LCCC) opposes any new Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) developments in the Leith area, citing the absence of a local university, the oversaturation of current PBSAs in Leith, and the pressing need for housing that serves long-term residents and diverse community needs."
Read their full paper on the subject here.
RNLI Open Day at South Queensferry
The RNLI are holding an Open Day on 29 June from noon to 4pm.
The event is sponsored by The Railbridge Bar & Bistro with a water rescue display from The Scottish Newfoundland Club. Music will be provided by Queensferry Pipes and Drums Band and the Maid of the Forth offers RIB taster trips. (Book now).
Royal patron
Dance Base has announced that His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, KG, KT, GCVO, has accepted an invitation to become Royal Patron of Dance Base.
A spokesperson for Dance Base said: "The Duke of Edinburgh’s patronage comes at an important time in Scotland’s creative and performing arts sector as we work to ensure dance remains accessible to all, to support peoples’ health and wellbeing and to create opportunities for Scotland’s dance artists."
Dance Base CEO Jeanie Scott said: "In 2001, His Majesty The King, as Prince of Wales, officially opened our then brand-new dance centre on Edinburgh’s Grassmarket. We are delighted to now announce His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh as
our Royal Patron, and to work with him to help dance flourish and change lives.”
Co-Chairs of Dance Base Alice McGrath and Paul Fitzpatrick said: “Ahead of our building’s 25th anniversary next year, we are proud to welcome His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh as our Royal Patron. We look forward to celebrating this important
milestone with The Duke, and to working with him well into the future.”
