Bon Papillon Winter Exhibition: Ingrid Nilsson with Senja Bownes, Lynne Harkes and Melanie Williamson. Open preview 5.30pm tonight, then 10am-5pm Wednesday to Sunday, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, Bon Papillon, 15 Howe Street. Read The Edinburgh Reporter’s choice of the Top Five Scones in Edinburgh here – and see why Bon Papillon won!
Jamboree Fundraising Ceilidh: a family night to help raise funds to send five Young Explorer Scouts to the World Scout Jamboree in Japan in 2015. The scouts all belong to Craigentinny Scout Unit: this will be a fantastic opportunity and a once in a lifetime experience for them, and part of the event’s proceeds will also be used to assist scouts in developing countries to attend the Jamboree. A professional ceilidh band will play and supper is included in the ticket price; a bar service will be available. 7-11pm, Portobello High School, 10 Duddingston Road. Tickets £7 (£5 for ages 5-15), £20 for a family of 4. Email joan.m.thomson@btinternet.com for more information.
Storytime: for young children. 10.30am today and every Friday, Piershill Library, 30 Piersfield Terrace.
Lunchtime concert: Gordon Bragg (violin) and James Willshire (piano) perform Mozart Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major K301, Respighi Sonata for Violin and Piano in B minor and Bartok Romanian Folk Dances. 1.10pm, Reid Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh, Bristo Square. Free and unticketed.
Freeze Frame Film Club: an informal evening of flickering images from classic old favourites. This month: Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot, with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. Come early and enjoy a three course meal before the show, or simply come for the film. Doors open 6.30pm, film starts 8pm, Out of The Blue Drill Hall, 36 Dalmeny Street. Film £2.50/£2, payable on the door or in advance from the cafe: meal £15 per person, must be booked in advance via the Drill Hall Cafe on 0131 555 7100.
Crafty Friday: arts and crafts afternoon for children aged 4+. 2pm, Blackhall Library, 56 Hillhouse Road. Free, no booking required – just turn up!
University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Open Day: an opportunity to learn more about the university’s postgraduate programmes and meet staff and current students. General information (funding, accommodation, facilities, life in the city, employability, etc) plus special sessions in each School: see website for details and full programme. Coffee from 9.30am; drinks reception 5-6.30pm, and lots of events in between. Booking required: click here. For more information contact Student Recruitment and Admissions on 0131 650 4360, on Facebook or via online form.
Bookbug: songs and rhymes for very young children and their families. 10.30-11am, Oxgangs Library, 343 Oxgangs Road North.
Edinburgh College of Art Friday Lecture Series: Lucy Soutter, contemporary art photographer. 11.30am – contact College of Art for venue. All welcome.
Fiddle 2014: the Scots Fiddle Festival starts today! Recitals, ceilidhs, sessions, workshops, concerts, stalls and talks at two venues, the Queen’s Hall and Summerhall. You can go on a Fiddle Walk and delve into the fiddle history of Edinburgh, try step dancing, learn some tunes from Shetland, see top fiddlers perform, ceilidh the night away or learn some Gaelic with last year’s winner of the An Comunn Gaidhealach Gold Medal for Ladies Solo Singing – and there’s plenty more! For full programme see the festival website. Opening concert tonight; Orkney Folk: The Fiddle Gathering, 7.30pm, Queen’s Hall, 85-89 Clerk Street. Festival continues on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd November. All tickets available from Queen’s Hall box office, in person, by phone (0131 668 2019) or online.
War Poets Collection Guided Tours: Catherine Walker leads a guided visit and talk about the many interesting characters who have had links with Napier’s Craiglockhart campus over the years. (The exhibition is open during usual campus hours and all are welcome to visit). 11am-12 noon or 2-3pm, War Poets Collection Exhibition Area, Edinburgh Napier University, Craiglockhart Campus, EH14 1DJ. Free but booking required (max. 12 people per tour): call 0141 455 4260 or email events@napier.ac.uk.
Edinburgh Napier University Campus Tours: come along, view the fantastic facilities and meet the Student Ambassadors. Tours will run simultaneously at 2pm at each of the Craiglockhart, Merchiston and Sighthill campuses. Online booking is required and early booking is highly recommended as tours fill up fast. For further information contact studentrecruitment@napier.ac.uk.
Royal Botanic Garden Photography Competition Exhibition: see the work of the winners and finalists in this competition, run by the Friends of RBGE. 10am-3.45pm, Gateway Gallery, upstairs at the John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, Inverleith Row. Free. Closes 8th February 2015.
What Nourishes Us?An Inter-faith Evening. Sharing in a nourishing supper, sharing thoughts on what nourishes us spiritually,and sharing a common path of contemplation (walking the labyrinth). Please bring some food to share. 6.30pm, Polwarth Parish Church, 36-38 Polwarth Terrace. For more information contact Margaret at labyrinth@polwarth.org.uk. Part of Scottish Inter-Faith Week.
Easel Sketching in the Gallery: November. Sketching in the Gallery, led by artist Damian Callan. A different subject each month, sometimes with a model. All materials supplied. 2-4pm, Main Gallery Floor, Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free and unticketed.
Landscape with Apollo and the Muses by Claude Lorrain (1652): Lorrain was a pioneer of the classical or idealised landscape of the 17th century, and Landscape with Apollo and the Muses is a grand, definitive statement of his supremely poetic style. Art historian Andrew Paterson considers the qualities that made Claude so influential on later landscape painters such as Turner and Constable, and even on the origins of rural tourism. 12.45-1.30pm, (gallery floor) Scottish National Gallery, The Mound. Free and unticketed.
Collette Rayner: Access As Idiot Distraction. A new film created by the artist based on research into the Principality of Sealand, a former World War II sea fort located six miles off the port of Felixstowe, claimed by its owners as a sovereign micro nation in 1967. Working with digital animation, sound and text, Collette reclaims an unsuccessful attempt to gain access to Sealand in 2013. Preview 6-8pm tonight, then 10am-4pm Tuesday to Sunday until 25th January 2015, Collective Gallery, City Observatory and City Dome, Calton Hill.
transFORM: a new exhibition drawing together a group of four artists, Nathalie Cortada, David Henderson, Robert Mach and Keiko Mukaide, who produce diverse work with a shared underlying passion, a fascination with the human made world – the things people make, the processes used to make them and how an object’s life affects how we see it and react with it. Open preview 6-8pm tonight, then 12 noon-7pm Tuesday to Friday, 11am-6pm Saturday and 11am-5pm Sunday until 30th November 2014, Patriothall Gallery, Wasps Studios 1d Patriothall, off Hamilton Place, Stockbridge.
Julius Koller: Galeria Ganku: book launch. Ganek Gallery or Galeria Ganku is the name of an inaccessible rock formation in the High Tatras, a mountain range on the border of Slovakia and Poland. Koller co-opted this as a site for a fictive institution, initially beginning in 1971 by drawing on pages from the natural history magazine Vysoke Tatry (High Tatras). Ganek Gallery grew up around a small group of members, had a constitution and a set of articles, and served as an umbrella for the imaginative activity of the group. This book, written and edited by art historian and writer Daniel Grun in Slovak and English, includes magazine papers, photographs, photomontages and textual documents by Koller, an essay on the origins and context of the gallery, and interviews with the key participants. 6-9pm, Rhubaba, 25 Arthur Street.
Laurel Gallery Christmas Exhibition: works by gallery artists in 2D and 3D media, with new glass work by David Flower. From today until 10th January 2015, Laurel Gallery, Stephen Street, Stockbridge. Closed Sundays and Mondays.
Nitekirk: a welcoming sacred space for all, ‘a place of welcome, a space for stillness, a pause on your journey, an open door’. This month: Threads of Memory, with music by Justin Nash. Come and go as you like, join in songs, create art, read poems, have quiet conversations – or just sit in silence and enjoy the space. 8-11pm (drop-in), Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge. This ministry is rooted in Greyfriars Kirk and supported by its ecumenical friends. A different venue each month; all welcome. More information here.
