SCAN members at Edinburgh Art Festival 2025
For three weeks in August, SCAN member organisation Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) showcases the capital’s vibrant contemporary art scene, with a festival-led programme at the EAF Pavilion branching out to galleries and community spaces across the city. This year’s 21st edition invites audiences to ‘witness, reflect, and participate in the narratives that have fought to be remembered’, through exhibitions, performances, discussions and installations.
Not sure where to start with the programme? We’ve selected some highlights from the core EAF programme, from SCAN members participating in EAF as partner venues, and from members hosting their own events outwith EAF during festival month.
EAF Festival-Led Programme Highlights
who will be remembered here
Drawing connections between queer people across Scottish history, playwright Lewis Hetherington and artist CJ Mahony’s tender film features four queer writers – Robert Softley Gale, Harry Josephine Giles, Robbie MacLeòid and Bea Webster – responding to Historic Environment Scotland sites. Each writer responds in a different language, exploring the resonances and dissonances between who they are and the sites they visited. The film is accompanied by an exhibition of behind-the-scenes images by photographer Tiu Makkonen, an artists talk, and an in-conversation event with Edinburgh Book Festival.
Memory Is A Museum
This ongoing research project by Trans Masc Studies – aka artist Ellis Jackson Kroese – traces the histories of masculine-leaning gender diversity in Scotland. The work questions whose stories are made visible via woven-together internet relics, local collaborations, and the generous contributions of the Scottish trans masculine community. The project is expanded through a performance from Adam Kashmir on 10 August.
Early Career Artist-in-Residence
EAF’s first Early Career Artist-in-Residence, Hamish Halley, presents a poignant video piece intertwining the intimate act of cleaning his grandparents’ home after their passing, and the monumental moving of Perth Museum’s collection. Formerly PLATFORM, the Early Career Artist-in-Residence programme offers an 18-month residency, with support for research, reflection, making and community engagement.
All EAF festival-led exhibitions take place 7–24 August at the EAF Pavilion, 45 Leith Street, Edinburgh.
SCAN Members at EAF
Siân Davey: The Garden / Stills Centre for Photography / Until 30 August
Exhibited in Scotland for the first time, this project by Siân Davey documents the transformation of the photographer’s garden into an immersive wildflower haven and community space for shared stories. Davey presents the moments of reflection, love, and connection captured in the garden as it became a space for heartbreak, joy and everything in between.
Aqsa Arif and Robert Powell / Edinburgh Printmakers / Until 2 November
Drawing on imagery from Pakistani folklore and a paint advert filmed in her childhood council flat, Aqsa Arif’s multimedia installation Raindrops of Rani probes themes of fractured identity, displacement, and cultural synthesis. Equally rich in symbolic imagery, Robert Powell’s Hall of Hours is inspired by medieval Books of Hours, inviting audiences to think about how we organise time and structure knowledge. Both artists are set to discuss their work at talks during the festival.
EAF X Outer Spaces: HOST / EAF Pavilion / Until 2 November
Co-presented by Outer Spaces and EAF25, this new residency is designed to platform and connect artists with Edinburgh’s creative communities beyond the three weeks of the Festival. HOST offers a place in the heart of Edinburgh for six months, bringing together members of the Outer Spaces national network with artists from the year’s Festival programme. Visitors are also invited to explore the artists’ practices through open studios during the Festival.
Find more SCAN organisational members in the EAF programme here.
More SCAN Members in Edinburgh
Imogen Alabaster / Upright Gallery / 9–29 August
During August, SCAN member organisation Upright Gallery presents LOVE is the thing, an exhibition by Leith-based painter Imogen Alabaster. Imogen’s work depicts moments of love and joy, including self-portraits exploring identity, motherhood and the concurrent mourning of a former self while embracing the strength of a new one.
Artists At Patriothall Festival Fringe Exhibition 2025 / Patriothall Gallery / 9–24 August
This exhibition showcases work by artists based in the long-running Patriothall studio complex in Stockbridge, including SCAN member Shelagh Atkinson. All works are for sale, including ceramics, jewellery, mosaic, painting and prints, and visitors can join the artists for an open studios event on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 August.
Surface Tensions / &Gallery / 2–30 August
This group exhibition brings together the work of three artists who explore the material, structural, and conceptual possibilities of wall-based sculpture. Stephan Ehrenhofer’s textile and mixed media works evoke a quiet precision; Molly Thomson’s painting-sculpture hybrids carry the traces of their own making; and Derek Wilson brings a sculptural sensibility to the ceramic vessel.
Chinese Culture Week / King’s Hall / 1–10 August
SCAN’s Find a Solution intern Lareina Yin is part of the organisational team for Chinese Culture Week, a showcase spanning live performances, visual and participatory art, and intangible cultural heritage workshops. This year’s programme is entitled ‘Echoes of Time’, exploring how ancient cultural legacies continue to thrive, evolve, and inspire today’s world.
Explore more Edinburgh-based events from members on the SCAN website.
Edinburgh Art Festival takes place 7–24 August at various venues across the city. Visit edinburghartfestival.com for more information.
Images:
Aqsa Arif, Migrating Cocoon
Lewis Hetherington and CJ Mahony, who will be remembered here (still)
Siân Davey, The Garden
Imogen Alabaster, Looking Up