EAF (Edinburgh Art Festival) was founded in 2004 to provide a dedicated platform for the visual arts at the heart of Edinburgh’s summer festivals. This year, we return for EAF25, from 7–24 August 2025.
EAF cultivates connections between communities, artists and collaborators to develop contemporary visual art projects. Every August, we present the UK’s largest visual art festival that is rooted in Edinburgh and Scotland, with global dialogue. Our year-round Civic Engagement Programme allows us to work in different ways; offering sustained engagement.
EAF amplifies intersectional voices and perspectives. Our work is rooted within social justice, championing the voices and work of intersectional, emerging, and early career artists to develop art projects that address colonial histories, queerness, feminism and the climate crisis.
Our vision is to:
- Develop a multidisciplinary Festival that is innovative, intersectional and led by our Values, nurturing vision from artists and partners.
- Increase and provide a platform for equity in our projects, the way we work, and the people we engage, with commitment and empathy.
- Convene and connect partners locally and globally.
- Produce work informed by research, advocacy, and our partnerships.
- Be agile, responsive and adaptive to our environment, with care and support.
- Ensure organisational resilience through strategic planning, self-reflection, good governance, staff welfare and risk mitigation.
Read more about our Civic Engagement programme.
Partner Exhibitions, Museums and Galleries
EAF was founded in 2004 through an ambitious partnership of galleries presenting visual art, at the core of Edinburgh’s summer festivals. This partnership remains at the core of EAF, and is reflected in the programme of exhibitions developed for the festival each year by our Partner Galleries.
Presented across leading national institutions, internationally recognised contemporary art galleries and artist-run spaces, it offers a chance to experience visual art by historic and contemporary artists from Scotland, the UK and internationally.
Permanent Work
Our previous Commissions Programme has resulted in a number of permanent works for the city. A map of works can be found here.
These include:
- Rabiya Choudhry: Give light and people will find the way (Ella Baker), 2023
- Bobby Niven: Palm House, 2017 (Open to members of the general public on request)
- Graham Fagen: A Drama in Time, 2016
- Martin Creed: Work No.1059, 2011
- Richard Wright: The Stairwell Project, 2010
- Alison Watt: Still, 2004 (No longer on display)