THE Fair Fringe campaign has released a report into what it calls "exploitative practices" at the festival.
The report highlights what it calls "shameful practices employers and venues are guilty of in recruiting for Festival workers - practices that are so common that they are no accepted as the status quo."
These include long working hours beyond 48 hours a week, poor pay, deductions from pay, extensive voluntary work, and the "sinister" use of accommodation as part of jobs, which the report calls a "seemingly beneficial perk" which it means workers are "trapped in their roles under the threat of homelessness...tying accommodation to a role obstructs the ability of workers to leave that role without sacrificing the roofs over their heads."
The report recommends that all venues and performers sign up to the Fair Hospitality Charter set out by the Unite union, and that the Edinburgh Festivals Jobs website should refuse to host adverts that do not meet these criteria.
It also says Edinburgh City Council should make full use of its licensing powers to prevent "repeat offender venues" from operating.
www.fairfringe.org
THE Fleming Collection is celebrating its 50th anniversary with exhibitions in Scotland.
The collection of Scottish art is to stage exhibition at the Fine Art Society in Edinburgh and the the Maclaurin Art Gallery at Rozelle House in Ayr.
The theme of refugees, past and present, will take centre stage in Radicals, Pioneers and Rebels at the Fine Art Society, Edinburgh, from 15 August.
The show will focus on artists "who have challenged the artistic, social and political consensus", and will show two of famous
paintings in the collection, Thomas Faed’s The Last of the Clan and John Watson Nicol’s Lochaber No More.
There will also be photographs of the 'Calais Jungle' by Iranian, Iman Tajek, who has just graduated from Glasgow School of Art.
Other artists featured include cutting edge Glasgow Boys, Joseph Crawhall, James Guthrie and E A Walton along with their contemporary, Arthur Melville.
There are also works by Robert Colquhoun and John Bellany; and a "group of pioneering women from early twentieth century
painters" including Mabel Pryde and Dorothy Johnstone as well as John Eardley, Margaret Mellis and Alison Watt.
This exhibition is part of the Edinburgh Art Festival.
A Scottish Colourist exhibition is taking place at the Maclaurin Gallery at Rozelle House, Ayr, from 18 August.
The exhibition is called Rhythm of Light: Scottish Colourists from the Fleming Collection and features work by SJ.Peploe, JD. Fergusson, Leslie Hunter, and FCB. Cadell.
Director of the Fleming Collection, James Knox, said: "The aim of our dynamic exhibition programme is to highlight the achievements of Scottish artists to both new and familiar audiences.
"As such the range of master works in the Fleming Collection brings into focus the creativity, adventurousness, intellectual curiosity and native talent of the Scots who are capable of producing timeless works of art that can hold their own in an international context.”
www.flemingcollection.com
THE BBC Proms are holding a Prom in using virtual reality technology for the first time, with music by Anna Meredith.
The composer's work also opened the Edinburgh International Festival this year.
Nothing to be Written has been created by Meredith, and 59 Productions.
The first VR Prom receives its world premiere on Tuesday 21 August.
The seven-minute performance is a "contemporary response to the First War World and takes the ‘field postcard’ as its inspiration," the Proms said.
It used music from the Five Telegrams project which formally launched the BBC Proms 2018 and the EIF season.
Its haunting second movement, entitled ‘Field Postcard’, is utilised, with performances by the BBC Proms Youth Ensemble and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, alongside the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of their chief conductor, Sakari Oramo.
Meredith said: "I'm totally delighted with 59 Productions' beautiful story telling in 'Nothing to Be Written' - to me it mirrors the music I wrote by allowing you to experience the texture both at a distance or really zooming into the detail of the Field Postcards and the stories they tell beyond the prescribed text".
After its Proms premiere, it will be available to the public on "major VR and BBC platforms" later this year
www.bbc.co.uk/proms
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here