FIVE new art projects have been specially commissioned for this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival.

Artists Nathan Coley, Alfredo Jaar, Rosalind Nashashibi, Sriwhana Spong and Corin Sworn will present new projects at sites across the city, including Parliament Hall, home to the Scottish Parliament prior to the 1707 Act of Union, the structure linking Festival partner galleries National Museum of Scotland and Talbot Rice Gallery; St Bernard’s Well, an eighteenth century neo-classical temple designed by the painter Alexander Nasmyth; and Edinburgh College of Art’s newly re-opened sculpture court.

Platform: 2019 will also show four artists based in Scotland and at the start of their careers to make and present new work.

Housed in The Fire Station at Edinburgh College of Art, this year’s group exhibition, selected by award-winning artists Monster Chetwynd and Toby Paterson, brings together new work by Anna Danielewicz, Joanne Dawson, Harry Maberly and Suds McKenna.

The Future is Inside Us, It’s Not Somewhere Else is a new project by 2007 Turner Prize shortlisted, Glasgow-based artist Nathan Coley, devised for the historic space of Edinburgh’s Parliament Hall, and inspired by the idealised views of a new world - as imagined by the old world of Europe - which appear on French 19th century hand printed wallpaper.

Coley’s new project consists of a series of large-scale custom-made lightboxes which combine original wallpaper from Zuber & Cie with short texts selected by the artist.

A new two-part film by Glasgow School of Art graduate and 2017 Turner Prize shortlisted Rosalind Nashashibi is inspired by a short story by the sci-fi writer Ursula K. Le Guin.

Canadian, Glasgow-based artist Corin Sworn brings together sculpture, performance and film in a new installation specially devised for Edinburgh College of Art’s newly re-opened sculpture court.

Sorcha Carey, Director of Edinburgh Art Festival, said: “We are delighted to announce further programme details today of our 2019 edition, including the artists in this year’s Commissions Programme.

"United by a shared interest in language and storytelling, the artists participating in Stories for an Uncertain World look to the past as well as to imagined futures, to uncover stories which speak to us in the precarious present.

"The thematic finds echoes too in Platform: 2019, bringing together a new generation of artists based in Scotland with works which use fiction and humour to explore issues ranging from embellishment and identity; to sustainability and fandom.”

www.edinburghartfestival.com

A NEW app has been launched for visitors to the Children's Wood and North Kelvin Meadow in Glasgow by the National Theatre of Scotland.

It follows the success of performances of the NTS’s production of The Reason I Jump in the green space last summer.

The Reason I Jump, based on the book by Naoki Higashida, translated by David Mitchell and Keiko Yoshida was a production conceived and directed by Graham Eatough and designed by Observatorium.

The free app offers an augmented reality experience for visitors to the North Kelvin Meadow and Children’s Wood who will be able to enjoy aspects of the The Reason I Jump through a "specially developed digital experience, walking through the maze in search of labyrinthine marker-points."

The app is available to download for free for Android and Apple devices and is downloadable from iTunes and the Google Play Store.

The app also celebrates a partnership between the National Theatre of Scotland and the National Autistic Society Scotland (NAS), launched in 2018.

Jackie Wylie, Artistic Director of National Theatre of Scotland, said: “We’re tremendously excited to launching this new immersive app, which will offer a unique new way for audiences to experience these stories. The Reason I Jump was a testament to the power of storytelling in celebrating neurodiversity, and this creates a beautiful lasting legacy of the project for visitors to the Children’s Wood and North Kelvin Meadow.”

www.nationaltheatrescotland.com

CREATIVE Scotland has announced the first round of recipients for £285,000 funding to "increase the diversity of people in the arts, screen and creative industries."

The Create:Inclusion Fund backed by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland, has supported sixteen awards ranging from £5,000 to £42,000.

They include The Bothy Project in partnership with artists collective Transmission, which will host a series of residencies for eight BAME artists at Sweeney’s Bothy on the Isle of Eigg.

Folk musician David Nicholson, who identifies as being on the autistic spectrum, will embark on a period of professional development with top fiddle players; poet Ellen Renton will create new work based on her experience of living with albinism; Rabiya Choudhry will create a pop-up visual art installation in Glasgow co-curated with other female BAME artists and Scottish-Kenyan performance storyteller Mara Menzies will create new work about heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua told through the eyes of his mother and the challenges she faces raising children with Nigerian values in the UK.

www.creativescotland.com