Opera and Classical Music | Theatre  |  Literature  |  Dance  |  Comedy  |  Film  |  Arts and Culture Virtual Tours  |  Scottish Art Gallery and Museum Tours  |  Life Drawing  |  Scottish History and Culture  

Opera Highlights Autumn 2020  Four singers, excited to be performing live for the first time since lockdown, come together with a glorious array of music – from Verdi’s La traviata and Bizet’s Carmen to Gilbert & Sullivan, Mozart, Lehár and more. (Free) (Captioned)

The Narcissistic Fish – A Scottish Opera Short A phone call during a busy shift in the restaurant kitchen of The Narcissistic Fish sparks a war between the owner Angus and his brother Kai. As they argue over their dead father, talented and underpaid chef Belle has a revelation of her own. (Free)(Captioned)

Audio described performance The Narcissistic Fish – A Scottish Opera Short

The Diary of One Who Disappeared – An Opera in Concert Created for Lammermuir Festival 2020 by Scottish Opera. Janácek’s feverish fable of obsessive love, desire and escape is broadcast from Glasgow’s Theatre Royal in a specially-created concert performance. (Free) (Captioned)

Audio described performance The Diary of One Who Disappeared

Digital Season RSNO Over the coming months you can enjoy ten glorious concerts which will be filmed live for you in the RSNO’s studio with COVID-19 secure measures in place. These ten performances are a reimagining of our 2020:21 Season. (Paid)

Friday Night Club – RSNO Archive Concerts 15 free online concerts from our archives, featuring beloved music performed by world-class musicians. (Free)

Scottish Chamber Orchestra: The Quilter Cheviot Benedetti Concert Benedetti Plays Bruch. Of the nine major works that Bruch wrote for violin, his first Violin Concerto is easily the most popular. A matchless ability to balance melodic simplicity and virtuosity is exemplified in the Adagio, where soaring lines and bravura technical displays are tempered with the sweetness of a lullaby. (Free)

Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Chamber Music and Streamed Concerts 11 concerts filmed at a variety of locations across Scotland and broadcast online. (Free)

The Stories We Tell About Black Lives – Traverse In this wide-ranging video essay, academic, playwright and screenwriter, May Sumbwanyambe uses his personal experiences to explore the concerning portrayal of Black people in the media. (Free) (Captioned) 

In Dreams I; – Traverse Natasha’s Happening is the first film from her in dreams i; series. The film responds to Black geographies and how Black people fit into spaces – physically or metaphorically. It is a mediation on history, identity and memory, and how these can often be blurred into one. (Free)

The Journey – Traverse An extraordinary landscape. A powerful connection. A unique moment in time. For this live, virtual theatre experience, you will use your digital device’s camera, microphone, and headphones to travel from your living room to Silven’s home in rural Scotland – a virtual space filled with beautiful cinematic imagery and high-definition immersive sound. (Paid)

The Bus Stop – Traverse Take the time to stop. Casual. Common. Everyday. Disability hate crime is on the rise. Jack, a young wheelchair user, experiences a disability hate crime as he tries to take a bus home from Edinburgh. Should he report it? It’s so casual. It’s so common. It happens every day. (Paid)(Captioned)

Tools for Change – Traverse Digital re-imaginings of three plays from the Theatre Uncut archive that explore racism, censorship, power and identity. (Free) (Captioned)

In Someone Else’s Shoes: Edinburgh’s Unexpected Summer – Traverse An immersive 360 degree video project. We all have a unique relationship to where we live, work or play – even as we share that place with thousands or millions of others. Our city is ours, and to see someone else’s view of it we must walk its streets in their shoes, see its sights with their eyes and truly hear their voices. (Free)(Captioned)

Lament for Sheku Bayoh On Sunday 3 May 2015, 31 year-old Sheku Bayoh lost his life in police custody. The young black gas engineer, husband and father was in his hometown of Kirkaldy in Fife when he was killed, prompting the urgent question: is Scotland really safe?  (Paid) (Captioned, BSL, Audio Description)

Lyceum Christmas Tales  An advent calendar of 12 stories for audiences in Edinburgh and beyond, combining online and live performances of new and familiar festive tales penned and performed by some of Scotland’s best-loved writers, musicians and artists. (Free)

Rapunzel A very special online festive show filmed in the beautiful surrounds of Stirling Castle, created by a Christmas cracker writing team, featuring sparkling showtunes from Novasound and directed by Scottish Panto King Johnny McKnight. (Captioned, BSL, Audio Described)

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk Partners in life and on canvas, Marc and Bella Chagall are immortalised as the picture of romance. But whilst on canvas they flew, in life they walked through some of the most devastating times in history. (Paid) (Captioned, Audio Described) 

Scenes for Survival – National Theatre of Scotland A new season of 55 digital artworks created in response to the current COVID-19 outbreak. (Free)(Captioned, some BSL)

Makar to Cracker – National Theatre of Scotland Now, with the nights drawing in, and a nip in the air, Jackie Kay invites you to join her once more in ‘the Zoom Room’ as she prepares a special Christmas treat. (Free)

The Portal – National Theatre of Scotland A new podcast for unusual times. Lose yourself in a story of obsession, 40 years of nightlife and 4,000 years of human connection. Two episodes will be released every Friday until 30 October (Free)

Scenesaver’s Subtitled Collection 30 productions available on their site, including Shakespeare, one-women shows, comedy, and family productions, there’s sure to be something for you! (Free – subscription required) (Captioned) 

The Stand on Demand Archive of performances from The Stand comedy club. (Paid)

MUBI.com features hand-picked films to watch or download. From forgotten gems to festival-fresh cinema. From cult classics to award-winning masterpieces. Changes daily.   (Paid)

British Film Institute Rent the latest releases, subscribe to classics and explore the best from the BFI, national and regional archives. (Paid and free)

Weymss Caves, Scotland 4D tour online. (Free)

National Galleries of Scotland Explore the collections online. (Free)

2020: Stories, Portraits, Visions – Scottish National Portrait Gallery Online and in gallery, a display which offers visitors an opportunity to reflect on the events of this year and glimpse brief snapshots into other lives lived during this difficult and troubling time. (Free)

National Museums of Scotland Explore the collections online. (Free)

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Sculpture Park described virtual tour. (Free)(Visually Impaired Accessible) 

The ATYN online drawing club All are welcome to join from anywhere in the world. We can all sketch together, taking 2 hours to relax and create. (Paid)

The National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive (formerly the Scottish Screen Archive) has something for everyone. Explore around 100 years of Scotland’s history captured by amateur and professional filmmakers. (Free)

SCRAN Cultural heritage learning blog which offers digital access to over half a million photographs, moving images and sounds from museums, galleries, libraries, archives and the media. (Free)

Lost Edinburgh an online, interactive archive, allows its followers to share, discuss and learn from the city’s colourful past through like minded individuals and even the city’s own residents. (Free)

Historic Environment Scotland Explore the collections online – archaeology, buildings, industrial and maritime heritage. (Free)

Pastmap.org Dig deep into the history of places in Scotland and beyond to discover fascinating insights into hidden stories and histories of buildings, towns and cities. (Free)

Tobar an Dualchais contains a wealth of Gaelic and Scots recordings such as folklore, songs, music, history, poetry, traditions, stories and other information.  (Free)

Historic Environment Scotland Explore their object collection online. (Free)

School of Scottish Studies Archives Explore an online collection of traditional music from the Shetland Isles. (Free)

Please note: Artlink is not responsible for the content of external links, and some sites may require registration and/or payment to view content.

Joan is a regular attendee at the Glasshouses, and during lockdown she’s been busy working on tons of arts and crafts projects. From painting to creating amazing creatures using felt, it’s been inspirational to see how she’s spent her time.

As part of the Art is Where You Are project which keeps creativity flowing throughout lockdown and beyond, Joan has made some crafting with felt projects that you can make at home yourself.

They’re A4 pdf files that you can print at home if need be; just click on the images below. You may need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view/download them.

We want to acknowledge the amazing work that NHS staff have been doing over the last 5 months in what are incredibly challenging times. THANK YOU! Read more …

Artlink partner in delivering the Tonic Arts Participatory Programme on behalf of the Edinburgh and Lothians Health Foundation.

The Glasshouses Garden Group has been keeping in touch with each other while they can’t be together; Anne has been sharing a newsletter with gardening tips as well as images from peoples’ gardens and we’ve collated them into a Summer 2020 issue.

You can view the newsletter below or download it here (opens as a pdf – you may need the free Adobe Reader to view)

Got an image of your green fingered skills you’d like to share? Just get in touch with Greenhouses artist Anne Elliot.

Explore, play around and be inspired here.

We came across this a few days ago. It is an amazing piece of poetry by Dorothy Duffy that responds to the realities of the current situation and directly speaks about the death of her sister. Coronavirus: ‘My sister is not a statistic’.

‘But‘ was Artlink’s first foray into fiction. With the support of the Scottish Book Trust, Anne Donovan paved the way. At the time we were working with a number of parents, who were beginning to reach the end of their tether, caring for their son or daughter within a care system which did not necessarily offer them the support they required. All she had to do was meet them and come up with a story…What patience! What skill!

‘Something in the Pause’ by Nicola White was informed by an arts project that involved an artist, an informatics specialist and a man with a liking for music. The man in question had a learning disability, a sight impairment and physical disability, which meant he was reliant on others choosing what he listened to. He listened to Radio Forth a lot. So artist Steve Hollingsworth began creating a sound system which could operate with one simple hand movement, enabling the man to select, for the first time, what he felt like listening to from an extensive library of sounds.

‘Angel Wings’ is work of fiction based on the experiences of a selected group of people with experience of mental ill health. After discussion we commissioned Anne Donovan to write imaginatively about a child’s experience of having a mother or father who experiences mental ill health. Anne was asked to write it in a way that would speak to children and young adults assuring them that they were not alone and that the experience is relatively common.