From early-stage development and residencies to award wins, national tours, festivals and international collaborations, Summerhall Arts’ year-round support is helping artists build the work that drives Scotland’s cultural life
Following a hugely successful Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with eight Scotsman Fringe First Award wins, more than 65 five-star reviews, over 180 four-star reviews and increased visitor numbers across its performance and visual arts programme, Summerhall Arts is highlighting the vital year-round artist development work taking place at its Edinburgh base.
While August provides a high-profile showcase for the work developed at Summerhall, the organisation’s support for artists continues throughout the year. To date, Summerhall Arts has supported more than 400 artists, delivered 48 Summerhall Surgeries, provided 35 paid development spaces, held 40 Exhibitions and supported artists through its Studio programme, residencies, commissions and partnerships.
This work provides artists with space, financial support, rehearsal and development opportunities, creative feedback and connections with audiences and industry professionals, helping early ideas develop into work that can go on to Scotland’s festivals, theatres ,venues and galleries as well as national and international stages.
Imogen Stirling, Development & Producing Lead at Summerhall Arts, said:
“Having a year-round base in Edinburgh is vital. The development work we do here doesn’t simply fuel our Fringe programme, it supports artists to create work that goes on to venues and festivals across the city and beyond. It gives artists space to experiment, develop ideas and build new work throughout the year, making it an important part of Scotland’s cultural infrastructure.”
FROM SUMMERHALL SURGERIES TO FRINGE FIRSTS, FESTIVALS AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
At the heart of Summerhall Arts’ artist development work are its Summerhall Arts Surgeries, a live works-in-progress platform giving artists the opportunity to test early-stage ideas in front of supportive audiences, peers and industry professionals.
The programme has now supported 48 projects, providing artists with vital feedback, creative exchange and the opportunity to build relationships that can continue long after the initial presentation. Increasingly, the Surgeries are becoming the beginning of a longer development journey, with artists moving into further development space, residencies, Summerhall’s own performance programme and opportunities elsewhere in Scotland and beyond.
Recent examples include F-Bomb Theatre’s Float, which progressed through the Summerhall Arts Surgeries before being selected for Made in Scotland at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe, followed by a presentation at Gilded Balloon and a London tour.
Corinne Salisbury’s Slayers developed through the Summerhall Arts Surgeries before progressing to Assembly at the 2026 Fringe, where it won a Fringe First Award.
Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective’s BearGirl similarly progressed from a Summerhall Surgery to Assembly at the 2026 Fringe, where it was an Assembly ART Award runner-up.
Wonder Fools’ Tether received development space at Summerhall before becoming a Fringe First-winning Summerhall show at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe. Development of the work also helped initiate a significant international collaboration with Korea, a relationship that was formed at Summerhall in 2025..
Sadiq Ali Company’s Tell Me received development space at Summerhall before going on to Manipulate Festival and a sell-out 2026 Edinburgh Fringe run.
The longer-term impact of Summerhall’s support can also be seen in the development of Biff Smith’s Dance With The Silence, which progressed through Summerhall’s Surgeries and Studio opportunities before Biff went on to become world champion of spoken word.
Summerhall’s residency and development programme has also supported artists whose work has gone on to significant national opportunities, including Emma Howlett, who was selected for The Stage’s Fringe Five following her residency at Summerhall with the work Aether that awarded her with the National Theatre Studio Directors Course and the Royal Court Writers’ Group in 2025. and then her fourth Summerhall show, a successful five star run of her new show The Plot in the Main Hall at this years’ Fringe.
Looking ahead, Babyplay by Amber Charlie Conroy represents another developing Summerhall pathway. The work was selected for the Summerhall Arts and the Hugo Burge Foundation New Writing Commission, has been written and shared, and took part in the Summerhall Arts Surgeries. It will continue its development at Summerhall as part of the organisation’s 2027 Edinburgh Fringe programme.
MORE SPACE, MORE TIME AND MORE SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS
Summerhall Arts is now expanding its artist development offer, providing opportunities at different stages of the creative process.
The organisation will offer 11 free space weeks, 12 supported weeks with £500 bursaries and eight enhanced residencies offering £1,000 of support, allowing artists to access everything from essential rehearsal space to more substantial financial support for projects requiring dedicated development time.
The Summerhall Arts Studios programme provides further intensive development opportunities, with support worth up to £3,100 per week.
The first Studio artists of Year Two, Delululand, have already demonstrated this longer-term pathway. Following participation in the March Summerhall Arts Surgeries, the company is now continuing its development through a supported Studio week.
Summerhall Arts will also deliver two editions of the Surgeries each year. A winter edition will support six companies whose work could progress towards presentation at the 2027 Fringe, connecting directly with the new Recovery Room initiative.
Recovery Room will give selected artists a further week of dedicated rehearsal and development space following their Surgery, allowing them to respond to audience and industry feedback and adapt their work towards presentation at Summerhall.
A spring edition will focus on earlier-stage work with potential to develop towards the 2028 Fringe and beyond, creating a clearer pathway from initial experimentation through to production and presentation.
Summerhall Arts has also selected Cat MacLeod and Raymond Wilson for its First Draft Commissions, supporting both artists to develop new pieces of writing from their earliest stages towards completed first drafts. Alongside the financial commission, the programme provides an ongoing relationship with each artist, including opportunities for conversation, creative feedback and development.
YEAR-ROUND PERFORMANCE, VISUAL ARTS AND CINEMA
Summerhall Arts’ commitment to artists extends across its year-round programme of performance, visual arts, cinema and creative learning.
The second half of 2026 will see Summerhall Arts present and support Concerned Others by Tortoise in A Nutshell, The Rhinestone Cowboy, Imaginate Festival, Tom Molineaux with Andy Arnold, Junk Ensemble and Kate Taylor, Accidents of the Soul from Shotput, Not For Glory by Charlotte Mclean, Jack Anderson and Malin Lewis. and Offspring by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir.
The visual arts programme continues with current exhibition Forming Space with Garvald Edinburgh and the upcoming Conversation with our Ocean by Elizabeth Ogilvie and Robert Page, Didar, Out of Sight Out of Mind with CAPS Advocacy, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, Colour in Silence: Memorial Exhibition by David Peacock, Rosita Mackenzie’s Touching Light, Ruth Dafnis’ Second Hand Smoke, two Winter Market Exhibitions and the next season of Multi-Year Funding exhibitions featuring Jules Bradbury and Johanna Flanigan, with a third artist to be announced.
Also continuing are the Reconfigure Life Drawing Exhibition, and the third annual Group Show, for which applications will open in December.
The In Vitro Residency programme, in partnership with the Hugo Burge Foundation will include residencies and exhibitions from Flore Gardner and Juliana Capes, while Summerhall’s creative learning programme will offer a programme of workshops, running Wednesday to Sunday between 11am to 5pm from November through April in the Histology lab.
Summerhall Arts will also continue its work with screen culture through the Edinburgh Short Film Festival.
Sam Chapman, Head of Visual Arts and Cinema at Summerhall Arts, said:
“Our visual arts and cinema programme is an essential part of Summerhall Arts’ year-round commitment to artists. It is about much more than presenting exhibitions and films – it is about creating opportunities for artists to develop their practice, experiment with new ideas, make connections and reach audiences. Through our exhibitions, commissions, residencies, partnerships and moving image programme, we are able to support artists at different stages of their careers and give them a platform within a genuinely interdisciplinary environment. That sense of connection is particularly important in Scotland, where artists and arts organisations are often working across different disciplines and sectors.
We want Summerhall to be a place where artists can come to develop an idea, take a creative risk, meet other artists and audiences, and build something that can continue beyond these walls. The strength of Scotland’s visual arts and wider cultural ecology depends on having spaces where that work can happen throughout the year.”
A CULTURAL ECOSYSTEM THAT DOESN’T STOP IN AUGUST
The work audiences see at the Edinburgh Fringe, Scotland’s festivals and on stages around the country often begins months or years earlier, with artists needing somewhere to experiment, develop ideas, rehearse, receive feedback and take creative risks.
Sam Gough, Chief Executive of Summerhall Arts, said:
“The success of August is only one part of the story. What audiences see at the Fringe is often the result of months or years of development, experimentation, rehearsal and support. The Surgeries are particularly important because they give artists somewhere to take those first risks, but the real value comes from what happens afterwards – the relationships that continue, the work that develops and the opportunities that open up.
We have seen artists come through our many development programmes and go on to win Fringe Firsts, be part of the Made in Scotland showcase, national tours, major festivals and international collaborations. That is why year-round support matters. The Fringe and Scotland’s festivals do not exist in isolation; they are part of a wider cultural ecosystem that depends on artists having places to develop work throughout the year.
At a time when that ecosystem is under enormous pressure, with organisations including The Skinny and the CCA among those lost or facing significant challenges in recent years, protecting year-round cultural infrastructure and the spaces where artists can take risks is vital. The future of our festivals depends on the artists and organisations that create and develop the work long before it reaches August.
As Edinburgh considers the future of the Tourist Levy, it is important that the income generated by visitors is recognised as an opportunity to invest in the cultural infrastructure that makes the city what it is. Supporting year-round venues, artists and risk-takers helps sustain the whole ecosystem, not simply the festival period.”
REMOVING BARRIERS FOR AUDIENCES
Alongside its support for artists, Summerhall Arts is also looking at how audiences can access work.
While the exhibitions programme is always free to attend, the organisation is now introducing a new Pay What You Want approach to the performance programme, removing the requirement for audiences to qualify for a concession.
Rather than asking audiences to prove that they are unemployed, a student or eligible for another concession, audiences can simply choose the price they want to pay to support the performance and Summerhall Arts.
The approach forms part of Summerhall Arts’ wider commitment to removing barriers and creating a more open relationship between artists, audiences and the organisation.
From a first experiment in a Surgery to a Fringe First-winning production; from a residency to a national tour; from a development week to an international collaboration, Summerhall Arts’ year-round work is helping artists build sustainable creative journeys.
As Edinburgh’s cultural calendar moves beyond the intensity of August, Summerhall Arts continues to invest in the artists, ideas and organisations that will shape Scotland’s future cultural landscape.
For further information go to Summerhall Arts’ website – https://www.summerhallarts.co.uk/
