Around Town
Place Project
A sense of place
Kirstin Innes finds out about a new 'mini-festival' hoping to change Edinburgh's
cultural scene
he biggest difference between lidinburgh and
(ilasgow's cultural scenes can be located right
down at the grassroots. While (ilasgow has a plethora of places like Mono. The Arches. (‘('A and the Art School »— centralised lttibs where emergent artists. musicians and generally creative types can meet tip. discuss and create together — lidinburgh‘s cultural institutions tend to be just that. institutions. Grand. old. cultural powerhouses. showcasing big.
glorious names in art and theatre. with little room for
the. er. little folk.
However. over the last year. there's been a decided shift. A new crop of young venues have popped up all over town: the GRV on Guthrie Street has always set out to be an ‘urban sanctuary for multi-media arts. creative culture. and music‘. More recently. the Bowery. which opened up in the former Roxy Art House late last year. has been founded on similar principles. aiming to recreate a small. vibrant section of New York in a basement in Auld Reekie.
It‘s this same sense that Edinburgh's cultural scene needed something else that motivated Alice Ladenburg. a recent art graduate. to set tip Place Project. a week-long programme of events aimed at jump-starting collaboration and creative networking.
‘When I graduated. l was feeling a bit antsy. I felt there needed to be more opportunity for people — not just artists. but people from different disciplines — to
mingle and have a platform to get into dialogues aitd collaborate on. A sociable. relaxed environiitent; away front the art scene. which can be a bit cliqueyf
Ladenburg and friends had actually considered taking over the Roxy themselves; when they got there and found it already occupied by Bowery—founder and kindred spirit Ruth .\loir. they decided to collaborate and make a beautiful thing.
'Place Project. or the first Place Project. at any rate. is basically a iniiii-festival.' Ladenburg explains. ‘\\'c sent out calls for submissions of ideas and projects. and found that people were actually contacting us. It's grown into something organically. We‘ve now got exhibitions. electronic music gigs. a Pecha Kucha night: a really wide range of different people involved The first night is going to be the artists‘ install. and we've got a young gallery group called Badger Badger doing a sort of performance eating piece — I'm not really sure what that's going to look like? It‘s full to the brim.‘
The main event seems to be the Place Project Masked Ball. on Saturday leI. with a specially composed score by local electronic buff l5reemoore. but there's a whole week of things to look at and people to talk to in there too.
Place Project, The Bowery, Thu 19-26 Mar. Full listings on the Place Project Facebook group.
I Books 30 I LGBT 60 Clubs 33 Music 61 Comedy 40 I Theatre 81
I Film 44 I Visual Art 87 Kids 59
www.list.co.uklaroundtown
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r SNGFU
>l< Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show 2009 Plucky students from Edinburgh University showcase some of the biggest names in fashion. including Betty Jackson and Nicole Farhi. in support of Maggie's Cancer Support and other very worthy causes. Look out for grand frocks and even grander company — it's one of the biggest events in the society calendar.
Edinburgh, Corn Exchange, Fri 20 8 Sat 27 Mar. Corn EXchange
>l< Ever So Sweet 1st Birthday Party Busy Edinburgh cupcakery Ever So Sweet has been going for a whole year. Come and help them blow out the candles. with music from Dick Dangerous & the Love Bastards. The Al's & the Pussycats. and the redoubtable DJ Shambles. Free cupcakes (and trust us. they are good) and fundraising for Shelter. Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire, Sun 22 Mar
* Clyde Slide The current fad for frankly terrifying charity fundraising stunts continues. as Action For Children string some sturdy (we hope) rope across the Clyde and encourage you to zipslide across (pictured). Probably safer than the squinty bridge. anyway. Contact Clare.pieroni©actionforchildren. org.uk if you want to take part. you loons. Glasgow, Bell's Bridge, Sat 28 Mar.
‘ 3 flan-2 Am 227: THE LIST 27