Edinburgh International Festival today announced a three year commitment to a programme of arts education and workshops with Castlebrae Community High School in Craigmillar. Â Festival Director joined the guerrilla knitting group this morning to learn the craft from them, but the programme is mainly intended as a learning experience for the pupils.
The school’s already thriving creative arts department will benefit from visits to the Festival’s headquarters at The Hub, and we heard today that they already have one under their belt. They went along the other day to listen to some music by Mendelssohn, and this morning were creating artwork explaining how they felt after the experience.
Norma Prentice Acting Headteacher at Castlebrae Community High School said: “We had a brief meeting and everything blossomed from there. We now have a three year programme to promote creativity by working together. We are very much looking forward to Meaningful May, and already you can see how engaged the pupils are in the work and how much it is adding to life in Castlebrae.”
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The plan is to make a film called From Castlebrae with Love which will be a film with music made by pupils, teachers and a team of artists and filmmakers. The film will then be shown at The Hub on 15 August at 5pm before a performance of King Creosote’s From Scotland with Love  later the same evening. The film will concentrate on the future of the school.
Other parts of the programme will include the Art of Listening project which is being documented by Harvard University which encourages young people to develop their listening and interpretation skills.
Pupils will also stage an installation at the Festival’s Hub and there are job opportunities for those who want to join the Festival team on work experience.
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