Chimeras, new horizons and exploring the Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival works with many people throughout the year through education programmes and professional development opportunities in the Hub and visits schools and colleges with outreach projects. This embracing and challenging programme of work is informed each year by the Festival programme and its principles. In 2010 the Festival is a journey of discovery through the diverse contemporary cultures of North, Central and South America, and Australasia.
Festival 2010 presents an opportunity to explore some of the ideas and questions around colonialism and post-colonialism and the many cultural chimeras which reveal deep histories and stories about the world around us.
Schools Programme
Young people will explore ideas from the 2010 Festival through their own Scottish cultural roots and those of the ‘New World' in a wide variety of workshops offered in a series of different media - performance, film, photography, mono-printing, painting, text and others - all of which will be exhibited at the Hub in August 2010.
Photographers Nigel Robertson and Morwenna Kearsley are exploring with upper school students at Holyrood High School the meaning of identity and the landscape both of Scotland and the "New World".
Writer-in-Residence Mary Paulson- Ellis is working with upper school pupils at the Royal High School throughout the year on creative writing workshops examining lost stories and post-colonial voices.
Several secondary schools in Edinburgh are invited to work with the arts critics from The Herald to critique, and develop understanding of, international work in Festival 2010 in the Herald Young Critics Programme.
Dance workshops in Secondary schools with Alonzo King Lines Ballet from San Francisco in September working with 11 - 14 year olds.
New York based theatre companies, The Wooster Group and Elevator Repair Service; Scottish performance artists Alex Hetherington and Rebecca Green explore hybrid performance style with the upper school pupils from Holyrood High School.
Scottish figurative artist Audrey Grant will be working with Primary 7 pupils throughout the spring and summer 2010. Drawing upon the figure and landscape works of Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan participants explore a whole new brilliant and exciting world of creative possibilities irrespective of classroom ability.
Primary 7 pupils are invited to take part in workshops throughout the year encouraging listening skills in the glorious Main Hall at The Hub. Tenor Chris Eliot and pianist Andrew Brown perform lieder and art song for the children in an intimate recital setting giving pupils an extraordinary opportunity to experience the inspirational effects of live music.
'The children enjoyed a different type of musical input and linked music to their feelings. They were introduced to silence and thinking as a form of relaxation.' Edinburgh Primary School Teacher 2009
Talks and Summer Schools
Within the Festival programme are a series of talks and discussions in which you can hear our artists talk about what inspires them, and explore some of the ideas behind the Festival 2010 theme in Explorations, a series of key-notes talks and panels presented in partnership with the British Council.
Teachers will be invited to participate in a series of workshops and to see Festival performances as part of an Immersion School for Arts across the Curriculum development.
Theatre directors have the opportunity to meet with and see the work of the makers of the Festival's theatre, dance, opera and music programme.
In August 2010 we will be hosting a Theatre and an Arts Practitioner
Summer School led by several of the world's premiere creators, including
musical innovator and theatre director Heiner Goebbels and US
performance practitioners Lin Hixson and Matthew Goulish. For more information and application details go here.
Sharing the Festival
Residents of Stirling and Edinburgh will be invited to special interpretive performances by the Simon Bolivar Quartet.
To find out more about how your school or group could become involved with the Festival's education programme, contact Sally Hobson education@eif.co.uk
