LeithLate15 Offers Walking Tours in August and September

LeithLate has expanded its format for the LeithLate15 festival with a number of different events taking place over an extended 4 month period. Already halfway through their festival programme LeithLate15 is in full swing with a number of events in store over the next two months till the climax of the festival in September. Some exciting new additions to the programme have just been announced.

Leith Mural Tours present a unique opportunity for a greater insight into Leith’s mural history, past and present, directly from the artists themselves.

There are six mural artworks featured in the tours:

  • Leith History Mural by Tim Chalk & Paul Grime, by Leith Library
  • Swanfield Mill Mural by David Wilkinson, Bonnington Road
  • Eduardo Paolozzi Mural by Russell Ian Dempster, Henderson Street
  • Untitled Mural by Tim Chalk, opposite Links View House, Tollbooth Wynd
  • Leith Dockers Club Mural by Tom Ewing, Academy Street
  • The Leith Aquatic Mural by Blameless Collective, Halmyre Street

and participating artists who will be present during the tours include Tim Chalk, Russell Ian Dempster, Tom Ewing, Rabiya Choudhry, Richie Cumming and Fraser Gray (Blameless Collective)

Tours will take place on Sunday 9th and Sunday 23rd August, from 1pm and 4.30pm each day, meeting outside the iconic Leith History Mural which is situated next to Leith Library on Ferry Road.

There will also be a tour map and guide produced by LeithLate designer David Lemm, which will allow the public to follow the mural route themselves at their leisure. These will be available in various Leith outlets, including both libraries.

There are limited free places for the tours available via Eventbrite.

A late addition to the LeithLate programme, is a return from the Travelling Gallery, a mobile art gallery on a bus that will be in situ next to Custom House on Thursday 27th August from 12-6pm.

It will feature their latest exhibition Eyes on the Prize, which showcases the work of selected past Scottish Turner Prize winners and nominees, including Christine Borland with Brody Condon, Martin Boyce, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Callum Innes, Jim Lambie, Ciara Phillips, Lucy Skaer and David Shrigley. Custom House will also host an open day of the building to coincide with the exhibition, alongside an artist talk by Mike Inglis who designed the current exterior vinyl wrap of the Travelling Gallery.

Entrance to the exhibition, Custom House and artist talk are all free to the public and the event is supported by Scottish Historic Buildings Trust.

Over the weekend of 12th & 13th September, LeithLate15 will host an Open Studios event over the three participating venues - Wasps Albion Road Studios, Albion Road, Edinburgh Contemporary Crafts: Process Studios, Abbeymount Techbase (top of Easter Road) and St Margaret’s House, London Road.

The spaces will be open from 12-6pm each day and are an opportunity for people to access areas not generally open to the public, as well as a chance to meet the artists who work in them and the chance to purchase some work. The Open Studios weekend also coincides with another annual festival, The Colony of Artists, where artists exhibit their work across households in the Abbeyhill Colonies.

The LeithLate15 festival closes with an exhibition showcasing the results of an artist exchange between Copenhagen and Edinburgh in Leith’s newest and most exciting arts venue The Biscuit Factory.

LeithLate has curated the Edinburgh side of the exchange and will be facilitating the installation of the exhibition which opens on Thursday 24th September between 6-9pm, running till Sunday 27th September 12-6pm each day, in association with the City Link Festival.

Participating Scottish artists include Jessica Harrison, Kevin Harman, Rabiya Choudhry, Jamie Johnson and Anneli Holmstrom. Participating Danish artists include Luise Sejersen, Peter Voss Knude, Christian Bang Jensen, Lisa Bregneager and Suada Demirovic and the Danish side of the exchange was curated by Miriam Wistreich.

LeithLate is an arts organisation responsible for a number of public art initiatives in the Leith area including The Shutter Project and The Mural Project, alongside the annual LeithLate festival and is supported by Creative Scotland, the City of Edinburgh Council, Leith Neighbourhood Partnership, City Centre Posters, GivRum and the City Link Festival. LeithLate

For more information, see www.leithlate.co.uk.