This article appears as part of the Herald Arts newsletter.

With Scotland about to disappear under a tsunami of stand-up comics, theatre shows, jugglers, stilt-walkers, sundry other street entertainers – not to mention a slew of outdoor music festivals – perhaps now is the time for a quick word about the visual arts. They do often feel like the poor relation at this time of year.

First to the capital. The Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) turns 20 this August and has gathered together 55 exhibitions and events at venues across the city. These range from the grand national galleries, where Belfast-born Glasgow Boy Sir John Lavery has pride of place in the Royal Scottish Academy building, to the less salubrious surrounds of the Castle Terrace car park. It’s there on August 16 that you can catch a special, one-off performance by artist Prem Sahib of his provocative work, Alleus. 


The eagle-eyed among you will already have twigged that spells Suella backwards. To that nugget of information let me add this: the Suella in question is former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and in his work Sahib uses cut-ups and re-edits of her speeches on immigration alongside live and recorded voices to offer his own tribute. OK, maybe tribute isn’t quite the right word. Heartfelt it certainly is, though. EAF is also showing his site-specific light work Liquid Gold at Bard in Leith.

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Elsewhere there are shows by artists such as Moyna Flannigan, Hayley Barker and Adam Bruce Thomson, work by former Turner Prize nominee Christine Borland and contemporary Ukrainian photographers (the evocative subject is the meaning of home) and, at the sumptuous King’s Gallery, an exhibition of Georgian fashion. Bridgerton fans, take note. 

Outwith the EAF, Summerhall is showing a range of work in its visual arts programme. Among the artists featured are Glasgow-born Calum Colvin, sculptor Helen Denerley, and US photographer Lucian Perkins. His dramatic images feature in a fascinating documentary survey of Washington DC’s late 1970s hardcore punk scene. There’s plenty outwith Edinburgh, too, such as the show of work by 1980s New York legend Keith Haring currently on display at Glasgow venue The Modern Institute. 

Hugo bust 

Following news that the storied World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, is coming to Glasgow for the first time in two decades, The Herald’s Mark McDougall sniffs out a story concerning voting irregularities around the awarding of the Hugo Award. It’s one of sci-fi’s top accolades, along with the Arthur C Clarke and Nebula awards. It seems some votes cast for the 2024 Hugo Awards have been rejected ahead of the award ceremony in Glasgow, due to take place on August 11. You can read the full story here.

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There will be plenty of sci-fi action across the other end of the M8 in August too as the Edinburgh International Book Festival sets up for a two week run from August 10. Former Hugo Award winner Adrian Tchaikovsky is appearing in person, sci-fi luminary Margaret Atwood is being beamed in remotely, and there are events scheduled with rising stars such as Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson and RF Kuang, author of New York Times bestseller Babel. Interestingly, Kuang’s exclusion from the 2023 Hugo Awards, held in China, was also a source of considerable controversy. 

And finally… 

The Herald’s critics have been out and about as usual – or staying in and sifting through the best of the TV offerings – which various assignments and peregrinations have taken them from Glasgow’s West End to Pitlochry via Dundee and some unidentified out-of-season tourist spot on the Lancashire coast. 

Let’s start there, with TV critic Alison Rowat’s take on The Jetty. It’s a new BBC thriller starring Jenna Coleman as a widowed detective dealing with all the usual headaches familiar from these kinds of shows – aerial drone shots of chilly landscapes, dodgy locals, a slightly gormless sidekick and a moody theme tune.


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She also has a few new ones, in this case the attentions of a podcaster who is investigating a cold case from 17 years earlier. If you think that sounds a lot like recent Netflix hit Bodkin, only with Ireland substituted for some lakeside Lancashire tourist spot, then give yourself a pat on the back. Here you can read Alison’s take (because it isn’t just the Hugos which are in trouble) on the woes currently affecting Strictly Come Dancing. 

Elsewhere Neil Cooper takes in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel The Secret Garden, and winds up his deep dive into the Bard In The Botanics season by weighing up Measure For Measure, while Brian Beacom sits down with Dundee Rep’s artistic director Andrew Panton to talk about new show The History Of Paper. “It’s about a relationship,” he hears, “but it’s an unlikely relationship, and it’s also about the little bits of paper that can change your life forever.”