We are delighted to announce the interim programme for THE HELD SEA. Come along to meet the artists and participate in the various events and workshops. Final outcomes through each of their projects will be delivered at our inaugural FORECAST biennial in May 2027.
THE HELD SEA explores ideas of remedy, cure and care for coastal Edinburgh around Portobello and Seafield. Taking care is imagined here as a social, cultural and political experience, one that draws focus across chronic illness and modes of ‘repair’ for our seas and oceans.
Sat 07.11-26, 11am-12.30pm
LOOKING SLOWLY with Juliana Capes
Observational drawing in Mount Lodge Park, Portobello
‘Looking Slowly’ is an outdoor observational drawing workshop in Mount Lodge Park, developed alongside Juliana’s moving-image project for The Held Sea.
Much of Juliana’s new work is recorded in and around Mount Lodge Park, a place where she has spent countless hours as a parent and carer. Over time, the park has become a site of sustained attention: changing light, weather, puddles and reflections, plants, shadows, movement and seasonal change recur throughout the footage. The project considers how care shapes attention and perception, and how creative practice can emerge through the fragments and repetitions of everyday life.
Sat 07.11-26, 2pm-3.30pm
SEAFARING CHARMS with Katherine Fay Allan
Casting workshop at Seafield Beach, near to Kings Place, Portobello
Join artist Katherine Fay Allan on the beach for a workshop, inspired by protection charms carried by sailors at sea. Katherine will support participants step by step through the process of ‘cuttlebone’ casting – an ancient form of jewellery-making that uses the soft internal shell of a cuttlefish as a single-use mould – to create their very own Seafaring Charm.
Katherine Fay Allan through her residency has been exploring maritime culture, specifically protective charm-making and sea shanties concerned with resilience and fortitude, developing new traditions as a form of care for the coastal folk of today.
Sun 08.11-26, 9.30am-11.30am
WATERWORKS with Maya Rose Edwards
Interactive water systems workshop at Figgate Burn, Portobello Beach
Calling all water workers, budding engineers, artists and scientists! Join artist Maya Rose Edwards for an interactive drop-in workshop for Portobello residents, helping to construct a pipe-based water sculpture connecting the water from the mouth of Figgate Burn to the sea.
Using second-hand pipe cut-offs from Porty’s local plumbers and construction workers, can we build a structure to carry the water from Figgate Burn safely to its destination?
Maya’s research for The Held Sea explores cultures of maintenance, labour and horizontality. How hidden infrastructures and ecological ruins can become sites of both leisure and care.
Sun 08.11-26, 2.30pm-4.30pm
STITCHING STORIES INTO SEAWEED with Saoirse Amira Anis
Seaweed Embroidery Workshop at Art Walk Project Space, Portobello
Join us to tell your own seaweed stories with artist Saoirse Amira Anis! We’ll gather at Art Walk Project Space before heading down to Portobello beach to pick our own seaweed to sew with.
Historically, textile crafts like tapestry and embroidery are deeply intertwined with social movements, solidarity, community care, storytelling, identity-crafting, ideas of belonging, and migration. They offer opportunities for self-representation, shared imagination, meditation, and solidarity across borders. Drawing on this history, we’ll stitch and sew our own stories of home and migration into seaweed, the super algae which marks the border between land and sea.
This workshop is aimed at refugees, asylum seekers, Global Majority, people with personal or ancestral experiences of migration.
