Summerhall
Summerhall is a multi-arts complex and events venue in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in the UK only London's Barbican Centre is bigger. Formerly home to the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh, it is today Europe's biggest 'private' arts centre. Founded by artist economist Robert McDowell, Summerhall is fiercely independent and has been privately self-funding without any direct public sector subsidies or corporate sponsorship. It is in the top ten of Scotland's visitor attractions and one of the 7 biggest venues at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe each year with a festival programme of about 200 theatre, dance and music productions each August in the Edinburgh fringe plus many art exhibitions and other events, with artists and performers from more than 30 countries.
It also hosts events for the Edinburgh Science Festival and Edinburgh International Magic Festival and others, and provides a home for arts practitioners year round. Its over 600 rooms are used for art exhibitions, libraries, small museums, educational & research programmes, artist studios. offices, labs and workshops. About 400 people work there of which 100 for arts programming and reated activities, growing to 300 during the festival in August. It receives annually three quarters of a million visitors and co-produces and hosts over 1,300 shows and events. There are eight theatres and over twenty exhibition spaces, and more than this during the festival. The complex has about 600 rooms. One third are occupied by arts and technology tenants. Two thirds are for arts activities and support functions. There is a gastro-pub bar and café.[1]
The governing principle of Summerhall as an arts venue is the founding principle of the Edinburgh Festival, founded by Rudolf Bing, "to heal the wounds of war through the languages of the arts". Arts programming policy is about excellence as much as political or other social relevance. Summerhall's purpose is not simply to support 'the arts' in general, but only what artists do and say that deserves public attention. Summerhall believes all the arts should cross-pollinate and all are vital democratic goods, but arts production and programming are not to be corralled by democratically governed choices of themes, content, or purposes. Summerhall flies the EU flag and is passionately internationalist. There is no tolerance of political or cultural censorship.
Summerhall encourages inclusion, diversity, and debate. It calls itself a 'cultural village' within the 'cultural quarter' of Edinburgh. Its character is am under-commercialised space for people to meet each other in a place of cultural freedoms and constant enquiry, for research and high quality artistic endeavour; not as primarily a place of entertainment. Its look has been described as shabby chic. Summerhall believes in above all supporting what artists want, and that means not adapting or changing he history of the buildings, but instead respecting and working with that as an inspiration. Artists generally prefer performing in spaces with character where historically much as happened, not in brand new futuristic or clinical spaces. As well as operating as an arts centre, the building houses many artists, technologists and other creative enterprises. In its first seven years many thousands of artists have shown and performed at Summerhall in all art forms.
Summerhall hosts events for the Edinburgh Science Festival and Edinburgh International Magic Festival and others, and provides a home for arts year round. Its over 600 rooms are used for art exhibitions, libraries, small museums, educational & research programmes, artist studios. offices, labs and workshops. New libraries, performance spaces, and education programmes and other facilities are being created. About 400 people work there of which 100 for arts programming and related activities, rising to 300 during the festival in August. It receives three quarters of a million visitors and co-produces and hosts over 1,300 shows and events annually. 2018 turnover exceeds £4 million. Summerhall is debt-free. There are eight fully equipped theatres available year round (plus six temporary ones in August) and over thirty exhibition spaces. The complex has about 600 rooms. One third are occupied by arts and technology tenants (including the TechCube incubator) plus an award-winning artisan brewery (Barney's) and gin distillery (Pickerings). Other noteworthy tenants include One Part Carbon, ASCUS, Demarco European Art Foundation, The Demarco Archives, Artiscience Library, Interference Pattern, Animation garden, Edinburgh Ice Company, National Script Library, Scottish Youth Theatre, HackLab, Locked-In Edinburgh, Summerhall Jewellery School Giclee Printers, Rose Bruford Theatre School, Tonegarden Sound Studios, The Skinny arts newspaper, Neue Reekie, Beyond Borders, Puppet Animation Scotland, Summerhall tv, Summerhall Radio, Grassmarket Theatre Project, Community Drama Association, Pirate Productions, and many others. There are many research and education programmes. Two thirds of Sumerhall's spaces are for arts and events programmes and support functions, plus Zoom Club, Summerhall's Royal Dick gastro-pub bar and Summerhall shop and café.[1]
History
Early records show the Summerhall site was a farm, a cottage, and a family run brewery in the 1710s. All that remains of this brewery are a well and stone rubble sandstone boundary wall.[2] Terraced houses, two churches, and shops occupied the site for many years, until they made way for the purpose-built Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, built during World War I, when the veterinary school moved there from North St Andrews Street and Clyde Street (now Multrees walk) in the city centre. Summerhall retains many items on display from the veterinary school's history. Summerhall believe in adapting the arts to spaces to retain as much of the building's inherited character as possible. Most artists and theatre companies prefer exhibiting and performing in spaces with an explicit history rather than in clinically new or relatively soulless places and spaces.[2]
Building the college at Summerhall began in 1913. It was the third home for the UK's second oldest veterinary school (1823) named in the 1860s after its founder Professor William Dick in response to nearby New Veterinary College. Dick was a former student of the anatomist John Barclay of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.[On 21 July 1914, a memorial stone and time capsule were laid underneath the grand entrance steps. Work slowed on the outbreak of the First World War, due to a lack of labour as young men joined the armed forces. The veterinary college moved to the site in 1916,[3] and the college was based in the main building and wings to the rear courtyard.[2] The Anatomy Lecture Theatre, still extant, has wooden, curved, tiered seating and vaulted sky light. It is the last surviving example of this type of lecture theatre at veterinary colleges in the United Kingdom.[2] Elsewhere on Summerhall's site, "TechCube" is a seven storey 1960s block of offices and laboratories at the corner of Summerhall Crescent and Hope Park Terrace. It replaced the Hope Park United Presbyterian Church designed by famous Edinburgh architects Peddie and Mackay. The church opened for worship in September 1867, and its spire could be seen from a large distance, the height of which dictated the height of the veterinary school's tower block that replaced it. The Hope Park Church Galleries were originally the Hope Park and Buccleuch Congregational Church, built in 1876, originally designed to seat 730.[2]
The college became a full faculty of the University of Edinburgh in 1964, and continues as that in the 21st century at its new campus (Europe's largest veterinary campus) at Easter Bush to the southwest of the city. The vets vacated Summerhall in 2011 when it was acquired by the McDowell family with the deal finalized at precisely 11 minutes past 11 o'clock on the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year with 2 minutes silence in memory of war dead.
The Demarco European Art Foundation occupies the Southern wing of the main building. Summerhall's first Edinburgh Festival programme was in August 2011. In 2012, Summerhall opened fully to the public to provide festival arts all year round. Summerhall and its programmes have gained over one hundred critical prizes and awards in its first years and been featured in BBC and other television and radio channels and has its own online Summerhall.tv. A dozen films have been shot on site. Summerhall attracts over 1,00 media reviews annually. About half of all shows and artists are from outside Scotland and at least half from outside UK, many from the contemporary world's trouble-spots and war zones including journalists, photographers, film-makers, visual artists, dancers, musicians, singers and theatre companies. Each Summerhall festival has artists from 30-40 countries. Summerhall is an example of a hub for congregating creative industries as well as operating as an arts centre. Summerhall houses a wide range of artists, technologists and other creative enterprises. Its success depends not only on its staff, history and purposes, but also on the inspiration that comes from the exchange of ideas across all the arts and creative industries given space by the unusually large scale size and resulting spare capacity allowing it more flexibility than is found in other arts venues to respond quickly to new ideas and projects.