iThe Writers' MuseumOld Town / Royal Mile
Colours of the Past: A Creative Writing Exhibition
Writing produced in creative workshops responding to objects from the city's collections, shown alongside the museum's literary displays.
More in Edinburgh
Each story in this show began with an object. Women from Edinburgh's Black and Asian communities started in workshops at the Museum of Edinburgh, looking at what sits in its cases, then turned to their own belongings and wrote about memory, journeys and what home means to them.
The workshops ran with three community groups: Networking Key Services, Mwamba and Sikh Sanjog. What's on show is the result: photographs, the women's original notebooks, and a booklet that collects every story together with the object that prompted it. One writer, Sushmita Wiebe, called the workshops one of the "peak experiences in life".
You come to this house for Burns, Scott and Stevenson, and here you also get Edinburgh written by women from across the city today. No critic has reviewed it yet. Entry is free, the museum is open daily 10:00 to 17:00 (last entry 16:30), and the show closes on 29 November.
Look for
The original notebooks
Look for the notebooks the women wrote in during the workshops, shown alongside the finished stories.
The story booklet
A booklet made for the show gathers every participant's story next to the personal object that sparked it.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Going Solo
- Locals Who've Seen It All
Skip if
You're only here for Burns, Scott and Stevenson: this is new writing by local women, not their artefacts.
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Image credits
9
- Colours of the Past: A Creative Writing ExhibitionCourtesy of The Writers' Museum
- Elizabeth Blackadder: A Life in ColourCourtesy of Dovecot Studios
- Blood and Guts: The Twists and Turns of Edinburgh's Medical HistorySurgeons' Hall Museums
- Time + Space: 2026 Group ExhibitionCourtesy of Collective
- The Writers' MuseumStefan Schäfer, Lich (Wikimedia Commons), CC BY-SA 3.0
- Camera Obscura & World of IllusionsInterestingfax, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- National Galleries Scotland: NationalM J Richardson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Stills: Centre for PhotographyKirsty S. Ross / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
- FruitmarketStefan Schäfer, Lich / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0