Porty Art Walk Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary

In September, the Art Walk Porty Festival celebrates its tenth year.

Since 2016, the annual programme has organised artistic events in Portobello and Joppa, offering up the opportunity to view work by some of Scotland’s finest artists who live in the area. The art exhibitions are coupled with a series of curated events involving local, national and international artists over ten days.

The arts festival was established a decade ago by a group of artists, and was initiated by Rosy Naylor, who continues to run the project. The Festival is supported financially by Creative Scotland.

Every year, the Art Walk Porty Festival has a theme, and this year’s is ‘ShowGround’ celebrating the beach entertainment era of Portobello, ‘Edinburgh’s Seaside’. A varied series of ‘Arcade’ commissions is being developed in partnership with Nobles Amusements including performance, dance, circus, theatre, puppetry and film. Most of these events will take place on Portobello Beach and the Promenade, many of them allowing for hands-on participation, and giving everyone an opportunity to remember Portobello’s glory days as a beach resort.

Over the two weekends of the Art Walk, visitors will have an opportunity to view (and purchase) a huge range of art in differing media, by walking round the ‘Art Houses’, much of the art in the unique environment of the artists’ own homes, as well as visiting other displays of work which form the ‘Art in Shops’ thread of the programme. Visitors who want a structured tour are welcome to join one of the four organised walks available, while other may prefer to combine visiting the Art Walk with seeing all of Portobello’s other attractions, and eating some of the great food available in the area!

To celebrate this tenth year of the Art Walk, the programme will, for the first time, offer ‘Flowering Porty’ an opportunity to view the forty or so front gardens taking part in an informal (but no doubt tightly fought) gardening competition also loosely based on the ‘Seaside’ theme.

The Art Walk promises an excitingly creative, varied (and free) day out for the whole family and welcomes everyone from the true art connoisseur to people who just like visiting interesting homes! Detailed maps are available from all the venues, and everything is clearly signposted. Many visitors start their visit at the Festival Hub which once again this year is kindly being provided by Annan Solicitors and Estate Agents on Portobello High Street.

Events take place across the period of the Festival, which is from 4-14 September; the ‘Art Houses’ programme runs from 10am to 6pm on the weekends (6/7 and 13/14 September). The full programme of events will be announced by 12 August.

Anna Liebmann in the willow patch