Summerhall sits proudly beside the Meadows. Regal and charming, many know it as a leading Fringe venue in Edinburgh. Outside of August however, it hosts exhibitions and events all year round, and is home to over 100 artists and other companies. A pre-application notice from AMA (New Town) Limited outlines plans to turn the site into a “mixed-use Arts Quarter,” reducing the arts space by creating a hotel, student accommodation, and office and hospitality spaces. The Student spoke to Sam Gough, CEO of Summerhall Arts, and Samantha Chapman, Head of Visual Art and Cinema, about the indispensable value of Summerhall as a crucial part of Edinburgh’s arts ecosystem, the year-round programmes it offers for students and early-career artists, and the consequences of its prospective “partial selective demolition” for the Scottish arts scene.
For students, Summerhall offers what is increasingly fleeting in our current world: third spaces. Its courtyard contains the biggest beer garden in Edinburgh, life drawing classes in the theatre, a weekly ceilidh, two community choirs, and the five year-round galleries that are free to enter. Summerhall is also inextricably linked to the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA). Each year, a painting graduate has the opportunity to put on a full exhibition. Chapman highlights the value of the graduate scheme: “They have the opportunity to work with a living, working gallery and to curate their space, and that lasts for about a month to a year.” Summerhall Arts also works with architecture students, with opportunities for their projects to be exhibited at the site. Chapman explains how Summerhall often provides a creative stepping stone for early-career artists: “It’s quite often the first time that arts students have exhibited outside of their university — it’s a really important step. Similarly with the painting project, or the exhibition project, it’s quite often the first solo show that any of the graduates have had.” The breadth of support that Summerhall offers to local artists throughout the year is crucial for keeping grassroots artwork propped up in the visual arts landscape of Edinburgh. Unlike other galleries that solely focus on well-known names, Summerhall contains each end of the spectrum: Jenifer Binny and Rio Yumada have held exhibitions, alongside Sally Price, a local land artist.
The Summerhall shop is a not-for-profit organisation — and 100 per cent of the revenue goes back to the artist. This epitomises the commitment Summerhall has to encouraging local artists. It is a space where people can test their creations, brand designs, and art, without the commitment of a gallery. What is unusual about Summerhall is that an equal footing is placed on the importance of visual and performance arts. Summerhall also offers Arts Surgeries supplying ‘First Draft Commissions’ to champion up-and-coming playwrights. In their diverse theatre and performance programme, recent shows have been held such as Concerned Others and Auntie Empire. Gough emphasises how Summerhall aims to support the “working community as a whole in Edinburgh and Scotland, to make sure that what we’re not doing is not just lumping all the focus into one month of the year. If there’s no anchors to keep it in Edinburgh, we will lose all of that cultural heritage that we spent so much time [developing].”
In the redevelopment plans outlined by AMA (New Town) Limited, the arts spaces in Summerhall would be reduced to a separate ‘Arts Centre’ and ‘Arts Courtyard.’ When asked about whether creating this smaller ‘Arts Centre’ would be able to accommodate the arts projects the site currently hosts — alongside the venue’s diverse Fringe programme — Gough explains: “There is already an established arts centre here, over 15 years, that has grown into this really important cultural capital of Edinburgh within this three acre site. There is already a great cultural site here. By massively reducing the available office space, the venues […] to put in a hotel, to put in student accommodation, there will not be enough space for the artists that are here. Not as much artistic output will be able to happen. There will be a dramatic reduction in the number of artists and companies that will be able to be on site.”
Gough is well aware of the rising pattern of Scottish arts institutions being threatened with closure: “‘No building-based arts organisation in Scotland is safe. The CCA [Centre for Contemporary Arts] — one of the most established arts organisations in Glasgow — gone. St Margaret’s House — If you look at any arts organisation, The Traverse back 30 or 40 years ago had to move their building because their arts organisation was under threat. It’s really important to understand that the arts live in threat from closure, especially building–based organisations.”
There is power in the public’s ability to make their opinion on the redevelopment heard. Gough emphasises the need for residents to make known the irreplaceable cultural value of the site to a “developer that doesn’t understand the cultural space.” In attending the public consultation meetings and submitting their feedback through an online form, people can become directly involved in the consultation process. With Gough calling for feedback from anyone who has “ever enjoyed a pint, those who have ever enjoyed an exhibition here, enjoyed a band, or seen a Fringe show,” it is an indicator of the number of people who have walked through the venue’s historic doors, and benefited from the creativity it has nurtured.
Image by Cat Thomson Photography, provided to The Student for press use.
