The Edinburgh Art Festival after four successful years is no longer an infant among the major festivals. Significant developments this year moved the festival into a new phase; with its first full time Director Joanne Brown bringing strategic leadership to the festival and major sponsorship from Lloyds TSB Scotland. This enabled the festival, for the first time, to run a successful series of late night openings and events which attracted new audiences to the city’s galleries.

The programme brought together more artists and galleries than ever before. A total of 37 galleries took part this year, an increase of over 30% on 2006. The high quality remained and the festival showcased an abundance of world class visual arts exhibitions and events in the capital, engaging audiences locally, nationally and internationally.

Art Late, the festival’s programme of late night events in participating galleries, saw hundreds of visitors on Friday 10 August flock to see late night comedy, music, poetry and DJs in seven of the city’s art galleries.

This year festival audiences were also able to enjoy a new strand of events aimed at children and families. On Saturday 11 August they had the opportunity to dance to the sounds of the 70s and participate in free workshops inspired by artist William Eggleston’s exhibition at Inverleith House. They were also able to join a tour of the city’s galleries as part of the Cat’s Whiskers – the festival’s new interactive story tour for children aged 4 +.

Joanne Brown, Director of the Edinburgh Art Festival said:

“The success of our audience development programme, this year aimed at children, families and non-gallery goers, has laid the foundations for future years and I’m pleased to say that we are working on some similar initiatives that will profile visual arts over the winter. Being able to work throughout the year with the galleries will enable the Festival to develop its programme and make a major impact on the profile of the visual arts in the city.

I’m very inspired by what I’ve seen during the Festival, there are some fabulous untapped opportunities but there are some challenges ahead too, for EAF and for the local visual arts sector. These next six months of planning at EAF is such an important time for the Festival and I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into it. 

Lisa Stephenson, Marketing Director Lloyds TSB Scotland said: “We are very proud to have played our part in helping the Edinburgh Art Festival reach out to new and growing audiences. The varied programme of exhibitions and events has ensured that visual arts play a strong role in Edinburgh’s festival season.”

Many of the galleries exhibitions are continuing throughout September and into October however, the Festival’s events strand ended on 2 September. Early indications show that audience numbers have increased significantly to the Festival’s exhibitions: Talbot Rice and Stills have already welcomed over 5,000 visitors and The Fruitmarket’s visitor figures to Alex Hartley’s exhibition are up 50% on 2006. Furthermore at the National Museum of Scotland figures were up by 14% in July and 12% in August from last year, reflecting the popularity of their main festival exhibition Picasso: Fired with Passion. Across town at the Dean Gallery Picasso on Paper has been another major draw, and is expected to exceed its target of 25,000 visitors. This innovative collaboration between the National Galleries and Museums has also reaped tangible rewards, with over 2,000 joint tickets sold to date.

With a month still to run, Bank of Scotland totalART Andy Warhol at the National Gallery Complex has attracted 55,000 visitors, and is set to become one of the most popular exhibitions of modern art the Galleries has organised to date. With almost 30,000 visitors, The Naked Portrait at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery has doubled its expected visitor target.

Susanna Beaumont, Director of doggerfisher, whose festival exhibition showed new work by Nathan Coley shortlisted for this year’s Turner Prize said:

“This year we have enjoyed greater press coverage and audience numbers than at previous festivals and we are delighted that we are recognised as a destination location by international art collectors and critics.”

Full details of audience figures from 2007 will be available at the end of October.