Culture and creativity
Help us contribute to advances in the creative economies and support Scotland’s cultural heritage.
Our creative and cultural industries do more than provide us with pleasure and entertainment, they help us make sense of our world, can empower people to drive forward change, and if well supported can be a source of economic progress and transformation.
At Edinburgh, we are proud to nurture a thriving community of learning in many areas of the creative sectors, including gaming, music, the visual arts, film, literature and graphic design.
We also host one of the world’s greatest cultural heritage collections, featuring 100km of heritage materials, including artworks, rare books, musical instruments, specimens and more, which help students, researchers and the wider community make sense of our world.
What we’re doing
Here are some of the ways we’re contributing to advancing creative economies and furthering understanding of our culture in heritage in Scotland and beyond.
Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is the University’s centre for teaching and research in the visual arts, architecture, design, art history and music, providing opportunities for future artists, innovators, designers and creative leaders across 80 programmes of study.
The arts offer an important platform for the expression of different perspectives and stories, which need to represent and reflect the diversity of experiences within our communities around the world. Scholarships are an essential part of what we offer to ensure that we can attract and develop students with potential from all backgrounds. The ECA Undergraduate Bursary Fund supports students to nurture their talent during their studies.
The pandemic has highlighted not only the vulnerability of our creative industries but how valuable they are. Helping the creative sectors unlock the potential of data, AI and digital technologies to build better relationships with audiences, deliver personalised experiences and fuel innovation will be critical to how they move forward in the future.
Our Edinburgh Futures Institute, part of an Edinburgh network of data-driven research centres helping industry, communities and governments to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges, is to be a hub for exploring the potential of data and technology in the creative industries, tourism and festivals, among other research themes. The Institute hosts a dynamic programme of events bringing together creative, cultural and scientific perspectives, and supports Edinburgh staff and students to develop innovative research exploring the potential intersection between arts, AI and data.
Established in 1919 and widely considered to be the UK’s longest running book prizes, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes originate from the charitable legacy of Janet Coats Black, the wife of James Tait Black, a partner of the Edinburgh publisher A&C Black.
The prizes are awarded annually to recognise the best fiction and biography books of year, as selected by a panel of staff and students from the University’s School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. In 2013, a prize for drama was introduced.
Thanks to support from our community of donors, the University of Edinburgh acquired the 294 notebooks of pioneering geologist Sir Charles Lyell, representing one of the greatest bodies of scientific observation from the 19th century. In addition to this collection, the University acquired additional writings and papers from Lyell including more than 900 letters to and from the geologist.
The insights these writings reveal are of great historic, cultural and scientific significance and to make these more widely available for students, scholars and the general public, the University is preparing to digitise the collection.
Join us
If you’d like to talk to us about how you can contribute to our work, teaching and research with and for the arts and creative sector, get in touch.