There is an exciting festival lineup at Dovecot this August. Prepare to immerse yourself in a whirlwind of arts, crafts and entertainment as Dovecot comes alive with an array exhibitions, performances and experiences throughout the day and into the evening. There is something for everyone!
SCOTTISH WOMEN ARTISTS: 250 YEARS OF CHALLENGING PERCEPTION
Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh Art Festival
Open every day in Augusts | 10am – 5pm | £10.50
Dovecot’s main event! This exhibition offers a fresh history of Scottish art and shines a light on key artists from the last 250 years, all of whom are women. From engraving by Scotland’s first professionally trained woman artist, Catherine Read, to a specially commissioned tapestry from contemporary practitioner, Seaki Machache, the exhibition highlights the contributions made by women to Scottish art. Through more than 70 paintings, tapestries, textiles, sculptures and photographs, the exhibition explores how the complex artistic identities of over 45 diverse women have shaped and been shaped by influences from within Scotland and far beyond. Listen to Dovecot Director Celia Joicey and Sekai on BBC 4 Woman’s Hour discussing the exhibition and read the amazing review in The Times.
Exhibition curated by Dovecot Studios and the Fleming Collection.
SCOTTISH ART AND APERITIVO
Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh Art Festival
10th, 17th & 24th August | 5pm – 7pm | £15
A chance to explore Dovecot after hours! Enjoy a complimentary aperitivo on arrival, followed by tours of Dovecot’s spectacular Tapestry Balcony Gallery and the exhibitions Scottish Landscapes: A New Generation and Scottish Women Artists. Special guests Edinburgh Printmakers will be co-hosting the evening on the 10th August and will give you an insight into their collection of prints by women artists, currently hanging at Dovecot. Plus, on the 24th August, Dazzle will be on hand to take you around their collection of contemporary jewellery. The Dovecot Bar will be open throughout the evening serving drinks and light bites from award-winning Edinburgh caterers, Hickory.
DAZZLE AT DOVECOT
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
4th – 27th August | 10am – 5pm (until 8pm on Thursdays) | FREE
The major annual jewellery exhibition returns to Dovecot Studios for their 41st Edinburgh Festival! Conceived in 1981 Dazzle is an exciting platform for creative jewellery design and over the last four decades they have showcased over 1500 independent designers, from established jewellers to emerging talent. Dazzle is the place to discover jewellery as you’ve never seen it before. From bold statement pieces to elegant classics, handmade in a range of unusual materials, gold to plastic, diamond to industrial rubber. Dazzle 2023 will feature over 55 contemporary jewellers showing over 2,000 pieces, which are all available for sale. Beyond jewellery, will be limited edition prints and a textile maker showing handmade scarves.
BARROWLAND BALLET AT DOVECOT
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
4th – 20th August | Every 45 minutes from 10am – 4pm (until 6:15pm Thursdays) | £12
Something for the whole family! Internationally acclaimed dance-theatre company, Barrowland Ballet, brings Family Portrait to Dovecot Studios as part of Zoo Venues and the prestigious Made in Scotland Showcase. Family Portrait is an award-winning interactive video installation full of humour, candour, joy and love. Sitting on swivel-stools inside four screens, join a family on a geographical and emotional journey across stunning Scottish landscapes as stories unfold. The striking choreography shares an intimate portrayal of family life. With space to roam, the children encounter rabbit skulls, converse with spiders, face-paint with berries and discover the fun of burying their mother in bark. A celebration of getting out into nature, Family Portrait is an honest depiction of family – relentless and glorious chaos, intimacy and, most of all, love.
SCOTTISH LANDSCAPES: A NEW GENERATION
Edinburgh Art Festival
Open every day in August | Monday – Friday 12pm – 3pm, Saturday & Sunday 10am – 5pm | FREE
This exhibition highlights the diverse and dynamic work being produced by new Scottish art school graduates. Showcasing photography, film, sculpture and painting from ten Scotland-based artists, all of whom have graduated from major Scottish art schools since 2018, the exhibition engages audiences with the vitality of emerging contemporary art in Scotland. All ten of these early-career artists are linked by their use of landscape to interrogate a range of issues including sustainability, heritage, care, isolation, craftsmanship and colonialist history. They go beyond traditional landscape representation, using movement, ritual and performance to tackle the genre in a fresh way. As well as sparking new conversations about the Scottish landscape, this free exhibition has been curated by artist-curator Siobhan McLaughlin to provide a platform for emerging artists at the start of their careers.
This exhibition is kindly supported by the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.
ELEVENSES AND LANDSCAPES
Edinburgh Art Festival
11th & 18th August | 11am – 12pm | £15
Enjoy an exclusive tour of our new exhibition Scottish Landscapes: A New Generation before the balcony opens to the public with tea, coffee and pastries supplied by award-winning Edinburgh caterers, Hickory. Discover how 10 recent Scottish art school graduates have explored, challenged, and developed the landscape genre in Scotland, from paintings and sculpture to film and audio works. You will also have the opportunity to enjoy choral performance pieces included in the exhibit, and which are only being performed during the exhibition as part of these exclusive tours.
DOVECOT MAKERS MARKET
19th & 20th August | 10am – 5pm | FREE
Support small businesses this August! Dovecot Studios is opening its doors to artists, makers, and designers from across Scotland and the UK. This craft market promises to showcase the best quality of talent with a wide range of marvelous, unique, and sometimes quirky delights on offer. This two-day market is located on the Dovecot Weaving Balcony and curated by Support the Makers. A weekend you won’t want to miss!