Festival City Stories
Jack Arts Scotland teamed up with Edinburgh’s internationally celebrated festivals to create Festival City Stories, a series of posters designed by newly graduated illustrators.
To highlight some of the many stories from groups and individuals involved in festival projects throughout the year, we paired some of our festivals with emerging illustrators, who brought the words of participants to life through a series of posters presented across the city’s streets.
Each festival first chose a quote from someone who had been involved in their community or education work, often part of the wider PLACE programme, funded by City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government. These quotes were then given to recently graduated illustrators from the Edinburgh College of Art who worked with the festival to turn them into posters to be placed on sites across the city.
The Edinburgh International Children's Festival had been involved in the three-year Immerse Project, which ran from 2019 to 2022, and saw them working with six Edinburgh primary schools, bringing creative and immersive arts experiences for pupils who need it the most. One teacher said that “the residency really helped my pupils show how special they are – even from another universe they shine.” And this led Daisy Whittle to design the poster above: ‘I wanted to highlight the importance of arts-based learning and the ways in which creative programmes have such a huge impact on increasing children’s confidence and creativity.’
As part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s residency at the 2023 Edinburgh International Festival, their Learning and Engagement team brought LSO players to perform in four hospitals for patients, NHS staff and visitors - with one audience member saying ‘I was moved to tears by the first song’. Zoe Brown took that quote and designed the poster above. ‘I was inspired by the incredibly enthusiastic feedback from the concerts - the power the performances had in providing respite and distraction, as well as making both patients and staff feel valued - really spoke to me.’
Edinburgh Science Festival aim to inspire, encourage and challenge people of all ages to explore and understand the world around them and they do this through projects such as Generation Science, which brings immersive science shows and workshops directly into primary school classrooms all over Scotland - leading oen young pupil to reflect: "Today I learned that atoms are really small but also really important.”. For illustrator Donger Liu this was the starting point: ‘The concept is to present an atom starting with a tiny, then zooming in to find out there is a world in the atom. I worked in a psychedelic style, with a swirling background to demonstrate the universe.’
The Big Scottish Story Ripple is the Scottish International Storytelling Festival’s annual community and family Programme, which pairs local storytellers with schools and community groups throughout Scotland. One participant commented that: 'Something magical was created that day. Sharing and hearing stories, igniting curiosity, and forming connections.' And from that small seed, Cara Gates created her poster above which simply 'celebrates the magic and importance of storytelling.’
You can find our more information about the Festival City Stories project at