Research Projects
Cultural Mapping Workshops 2019
The Culture and Community Mapping Project used seven public cultural mapping events to build a dataset of cultural spaces in Edinburgh for community use. For more details, please go to the project page.
Edinburgh Cultural Map
The Edinburgh Cultural Map hosts several datasets relevant to culture in Edinburgh. The featured dataset shows cultural spaces in Edinburgh; most of these spaces were identified in our 2019 cultural mapping workshops. The map also hosts context datasets showing the city’s open spaces, outdoor sculptures, murals, bike trails, the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, and sites related to Edinburgh’s slave-owning past, among several others.
LeithLate Virtual Tours
In collaboration with LeithLate, we designed a virtual tour of murals and artist studios. The project gives exposure to Edinburgh’s arts scene, both street murals and artist spaces that the public do not normally have access to.
We are making the software code open access so that other organisations can draw on this work, which may be of use in light of the impact to the sector due to Covid-19. For more details, please go to the project page.
Art In & Out of Lockdown Report
Our 2020 report on how eight major cultural institutions in Edinburgh have reached to the COVID-19 lockdown. Based on interviews, the report describes new challenges and new forms of outreach these hubs have developed in light of the pandemic.
Mapping Cultural Dispersal – 2021 Workshops
In the spring of 2021, we hosted a series of online and in-person cultural mapping workshops in partnership with six cultural hubs in peripheral neighbourhoods of Edinburgh. The workshops used photo elicitation and paper maps to gather stories about places that participants value in their local area.
The Festivals & Communities Map
A map that offers insight into Edinburgh’s festivals’ relationship to the city. The map shows data on festival venues, ticket purchases and community outreach, against the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
Edinburgh Flaneur – Cultural Tours by Bike
This project links our cultural dataset to bike routes to create curated tours of Edinburgh’s cultural sector outside the usual tourist spots. The online tool showcases a map of a chosen bike route, in relation to cultural spaces within accessible distances from bike route points.