Tuesday in Edinburgh – What’s On Today

Beauty Pre-Designed: Gallery Tour and Workshop. Beauty By Design exhibition project partners Mal Burkinshaw (ECA) and Dr Jill Burke (University of Edinburgh) invite you to participate in a tour of Beauty By Design: Fashioning the Renaissance. The tour will focus on discussion around the new exhibits in addition to key historical portraits used as inspiration for the artworks within the exhibition. Debra Bourne, fashion communications expert and All Walks Beyond the Catwalk co-founder and Alyson Walsh, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Management and Marketing at UCA Epsom and author of Style Forever, published on March 13th will join the tour, after which participants will be invited to an informal workshop with the experts to debate and consider the connections between historical approaches to beauty compared to contemporary attitudes. 10am-12.30pm, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 1 Queen Street. Free but ticketed as places are limited: please call into the Information Desk at the Scottish National Gallery (Gardens Entrance) or telephone 0131 624 6560 to book a place.

Read All About It! An introductory workshop on the National Library of Scotland’s online newspaper resources, including demonstrations of a selection of resources and tips on how to search and discover the information you need. 10am, National Library of Scotland, George IV Bridge. Book online here or by calling 0131 623 3734. For more information about this workshop please contact enquiries@nls.uk.

Merchiston Community Council: tonight with special guest Rachel Haworth of the CEC Conservation Area Consultation. If you have concerns about planning, parking, litter, graffiti, policing, anti-social behaviour, parks & green spaces, road repairs, traffic regulation, street cleansing, health & wellbeing, schools, licensing or HMOs, the Community Council is here to help. Come along to the meeting or contact secretary@merchistoncc.org.uk. Minutes of previous meetings are available on the Community Council’s website here. 7pm, Merchiston Tennis & Bowling Club, Polwarth Terrace.

Edinburgh Napier University Photography Lecture Series: Tessa Bunney. Award winning and internationally recognised photographer Tessa Bunney focuses on landscape and the way in which it is shaped by human activity; she aims to contribute to ongoing debate about the changing nature of rural life. Tessa works for NGO clients internationally, most recently for Oxfam in the Philippines. 5.30pm, Lecture Theatre F10, Merchiston Campus, Edinburgh Napier University, 10 Colinton Road. Free.

Lunchtime Concert: Emma Lloyd (violin) and Karen Schistek (piano) play Beethoven Sonata for Piano and Violin in C Minor, Op 30/2 and Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Minor, L 140. 1.10pm, Reid Concert Hall, Bristo Square. Free and unticketed.

Stockbridge & Inverleith Community Council meeting: 7pm, Stockbridge Church, Saxe Coburg Street. All welcome.

Woodland Walk: walks and activities organised by MEHIS (Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Service) and Health All Round (community health project). Explore the Colinton Dells on guided walks supported by the Water of Leith Conservation Trust: today’s activities will include Wild Art and a picnic. 11am, Water of Leith Visitor Centre, 24 Lanark Road. For more information contact Fulmaya (MEHIS) on 0131 536 9544 or Alan (Health All Round) on 0131 337 1376.

Laura Pawson in conversation with Dr Raquel Ribeiro (University of Edinburgh). Laura Pawson, author of In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre, was a BBC Correspondent in Angola from 1998 to 2000: this book is her investigation into the events of 27th May 1977 and their aftermath. For some, 27th May was the day on which the ruling MPLA party turned on dissidents and launched a massacre that would claim thousands of lives – for others it was the day on which a band of far left, anti-mestico, anti-white racists violently attempted a coup against the ruling elite. Pawson ‘produces a gripping investigation to dig up the truth and to try to understand why certain British Marxists helped to cover up the killings’. As the story unfolds, it also shows how the events in 1977 continue to influence life in Angola to this day. 6pm, Word Power Books, West Nicolson Street. Free: donations welcome!

Paths of Glory: a special screening of this 1957 film as part of The First World War in Cinema, a four-year series of films programmed in association with the University of Edinburgh. Paths of Glory (PG) ‘remains one of the most moving portrayals of war’, based upon events that occurred on 17th March 1915 when four French corporals were shot for refusing to advance out of their trenches through the carnage of no man’s land. The circumstances of the ‘crime’ inspired novelist Humphrey Cobb and subsequently a young Stanley Kubrick, who filmed this adaptation at the age of just 29. The screening will be introduced by Professor Jolyon Mitchell, Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues at the University. 8.45pm, Filmhouse, Lothian Road. Tickets can be booked online here or by calling the Box Office on 0131 228 2688: prices vary.

Cafe Ceilidh: St Patrick’s Day. Join members of Linten Adie and friends from the Scots Music Group for a free afternoon of songs and stories celebrating all things Irish. 2-4pm, Storytelling Court, Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street. Free: no booking required – just come along!