Published: 25 Nov 2017
Creative Edinburgh have announced the nine winners of the annual Creative Edinburgh Awards. Spanning arts, creative and digital, the awards recognise ambition, creativity and contribution to the city, with nominations and winners chosen by Edinburgh’s creative community.
A total of 32 outstanding nominees had been shortlisted across nine award categories in the strongest set of creative achievements to date from Edinburgh’s creative community.
The winners were announced at the sold-out Creative Edinburgh Awards event, which is now established as a highlight in the social calendar of Edinburgh’s creative community.
Claire Stewart, Director of Creative Edinburgh said:
“Our winners this year are all doing incredible work in Edinburgh, year-round, and truly represent the creative spirit of Edinburgh. From the absolutely outstanding shortlist this year, including some groundbreaking achievements, there is a lot to be proud of. ”
“It’s a line often trotted out that it was extremely hard to choose the winners, but in this case it’s very true. The judging panel, drawn from Creative Edinburgh’s ranks, were very impressed with all of those shortlisted and choosing just one winner was an agonising challenge.”
“The winners have all shown an exemplary flair and passion in what they do, and what they contribute to Edinburgh’s creative scene and reputation.”
Mark Gorman, Chair of Creative Edinburgh said:
”This year’s Creative Edinburgh Awards winners truly demonstrated the wealth of amazing people we have undertaking challenging and ambitious creative work, and all that they contribute to the city.”
Laura Jones and Heather McDaid from 404 Ink, winners of the Startup Awards. Photo by Suzanne Heffron
In the City Award category, tech incubator CodeBase have been recognised for their contribution to the city’s creative industries, putting Edinburgh on the international map as a top location for digital creative business and supporting a wide community of talent to achieve their ambitions.
In the category for the Collaboration award, the winner was The Architecture Fringe for their 2017 programme which showcased and platformed important work and ideas in the field of Scottish architecture, across Scotland, and showed the strength of vision and creativity in the architecture community
For the Creativity Award, the winners Creative Electric have shown creative flair in their theatre productions that has enlivened and invigorated every event that they have been a part of. Their Church of Broccoli performances in the Leith Walk Launderette for LeithLate was a talking point of the summer.
Winners of the Commercial Award were the newly formed strategic creative consultancy CreateFuture for their impressive breadth of work, speedy and impressive growth and the value they bring to the wider creative community.
In the Independent Award category, the winner Marco Bevilacqua, who illustrates as Want Some Studio, won out for his work organising and programming Pissed Modernism, the popular exhibition and event that gave commercial illustrators a political outlet on the labels of beer bottles and enlivened the radical spirit of the creative community.
The winner of the Leadership Award is Jenny Lindsay for her significant support and creation of new platforms for spoken word through Flint & Pitch Productions. Not only programming showcases and the Lyceum’s Variety Nights across 2017, but also coaching and mentoring of emerging artists and producing new emerging solo spoken word shows, promoting them to sell-out crowds.
The Social Award category was won by The John Byrne Award for their programmes that celebrate, showcase and fund young creatives across artforms, creating a new platform and showcase for young creatives to encourage and inspire exploration of values.
In the Startup Award category, winners are indie publishers 404 Ink who have blazed a trail since they started publishing their literary magazine in 2016, followed by their stand-out essay collection Nasty Women, which has attracted international plaudits, and recognition from authors Ali Smith and Margaret Atwood. Nasty Women was the best-selling title at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the world’s biggest book festival, in August 2017.
The winner of the Student Award is Alannah Cooper whose creative approach to photography and fashion communication, inspired by painting, rural landscapes and poetry, as well as the concept of rural creative practice, have already attracted acclaim and awards and marked her out as one to watch in the future.
Creative Edinburgh are Edinburgh’s leading network of creatives, bringing together Edinburgh’s creative community to empower, promote and connect the city’s creative sector. With over 3,500 creative businesses, professionals and students in their network, they hold over 45 events per year, run an innovative and popular mentoring scheme to support development, and hold annual awards that celebrate the best of Edinburgh’s creative achievement.
