Notes from the North

The main art exhibition at this year’s Festival has been Grayson Perry’s ‘Smash Hits’ (on until 12 November). I haven’t been to that. The pink-plastered pillars at the RSA entrance hint at the colour inside but they don’t entice me in. Nor does the prospect of the naked Grayson or more Alan Measles, the teddy bear we know too much of. There are lots more challenging artists on show. The most obvious one is at the City Art Centre behind Waverley Station,  a Retrospective of Peter Howson .  The exhibitions at the CAC are usually free. The Howson is not but you get a wristband that allows you to leave and come back later in the day. Perhaps that’s no bad thing as there are about 100 works spread over 3 floors and none of them makes for easy viewing. Peter Howson wasn't born in Scotland, but Prestwick in Ayrshire, was his home from the age of 4. He studied at the Glasgow School of Art but the programme doesn’t seem to have suited him. He failed the first time and dropped o...

You can read the question on billboards, programmes, street signs and banners throughout the centre of Edinburgh. Can you read it in Wester Hailes, Craigmillar, Granton or Muirhouse? Perhaps not. Like the multitudes of visitors streaming up and down the streets of hectic Edinburgh, I haven’t been to those parts of the city to find out.  I am fairly sure though that, despite Festival director Nicola Benedetti’s good intentions and best efforts, the event she’s in charge of is still stuck hard and fast in the inner reaches of the town. So, one answer might be – ‘ Why don’t we start by going to the out-lying parts of the city? ’ That would tie in rather well with the themes Benedetti has chosen to underpin the ethos of these three weeks of intense (and generally quite pricey) culture. They are:     1.       Community out of chaos 2.       Hope in the face of adversity 3.       Exploring a perspec...