Here's what you can get up to in Scotland this week...
1 It’s been a tough year for the top of Sauchiehall Street, which is all the more reason to get up there and show some support at the GSA's Degree Show. Featuring work from undergraduate students across the School of Design, School of Fine Art, Innovation School and the Mackintosh School of Architecture, the time has come to witness the art emerging from the many all-nighters pulled. Fine Art and Innovation is at the Stow building, Design is at the Reid building and Architecture at the Bourdon Building, from this weekend till next. You also have until next Sunday to catch the Edinburgh College of Art degree show.
2 The not-for-profit and volunteer-run arts festival is back for another year, after a crowdfunding campaign successfully cleared the path and paved the way to the Hidden Door Festival.
Returning to Leith Theatre, Hidden Door has music, theatre, visual art, spoken word and late-night, and this year will be taking over the former derelict State Cinema building, also in Leith. Catch headliners Cigarettes After Sex tonight, with support from Miss Grit, St Martiins and Acrylic.
3 Coming to Edinburgh’s Traverse theatre is Forward Prize shortlisted poet Harry Josephine Giles with Drone, a live performance fusing together sound, visuals and spoken word to personify and tell the inner thoughts of a military drone. On Tuesday and Wednesday, you can watch Giles perform with bleak humour and tender fury the military-dronecum-office-worker as she suffers burnout and questions the role of humanity within weapons of mass destruction. A good mid-week musing.
4 Kicking off this weekend is the West End Festival, which last year held more than 400 events in 80 venues across the west end of Glasgow.
Launching this weekend performances from DURANanDURAN, the festival is a veritable feast of music, visual art, comedy and poetry, as well as talks, exhibitions and Hidden Lane open days. The festival offers something new throughout every day for the whole of June.
5 Marking a year’s anniversary of the devastating loss of Scott Hutchison, Frightened Rabbit’s frontman and musical mastermind, Nice’N’Sleazy’s is holding a Tiny Gig for Scott Hutchison.
All proceeds go to The Scott Hutchison Fund for mental health, set up by Scott’s family.
Local artists including A Maxwell, Chloe Robertson, Deep Sea Tourist and Man Of The Minch will perform Scott’s most popular songs to remember his work and pay tribute to Scott’s memory.
6 Get yourself to SWG3’s Poetry Club on Thursday to hear the dulcet tones of angelic Billie Marten. Touring her second album, Feeding Seahorses By Hand, Marten is one of the most pleasant-sounding emerging UK artists and is reaching Glasgow on the second night of her UK and Irish tour.
7 The Southside Film Festival is bringing film back to Glasgow’s south next weekend, with screenings, workshops and Q&As to take place in a generous scattering of venues. Launching on Friday in The Glad Cafe with live performances from Carys Williams & Novia Scotia The Truth, the festival is now in its eighth year and is a keen celebration of pop-up cinema culture.
Raising awareness of the lack of a local cinema in the Southside, the festival brings together the local community to talk and watch f
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