EDINBURGH.- The Edinburgh Art Festival today unveiled the programme for the 2009 ART LATE which will take place on Thursday 27 August from 6pm to 3am. One of the most popular events of the Edinburgh Art Festival, ART LATE will once again offer a wide range of tours, performances and special events along with the summer’s most vibrant Art Party.

Announcing the programme Edinburgh Art Festival Director, Joanne Brown, said: “Over the years ART LATE has been growing in popularity with more galleries taking part and more visitors enjoying the event. This year is the biggest ART LATE yet and I am delighted to invite people to join us in a fabulous programme of specially-organised tours, artist talks, live performances and of course our great Art Party.”

ART LATE 2009, which has been organised by Siobhan Carroll, kicks off at 6pm at the Ingleby Gallery in Calton Street with a collaborative performance from musician Wounded Knee and dancer Ianthe Wright. At 6.45pm two contrasting tours will set out from the gallery leading people round the Festival, offering different experiences of the exhibitions. The Giving Tour, devised by artists Tessa Lynch and Shona Handley, plays with the notion of gallery gift shops and the keepsakes of art tourism. Those joining the ‘giving tour’ will experience cocktails and Kodak moments, and get more than a few cardboard keepsakes. For the fit the Blank Canvass Bike tour is an organised visit of the galleries with a twist. Along the way teams will create their own response to the work they see transforming “Blank Canvas” bicycles into travelling galleries. The ‘Spin tour’ will set out from Talbot Rice at 6pm. This is a personal introduction to work on show in ART LATE by the artists’ collective “Spin”. Lively debate and informed discussion come as part of the package.

For those who wish to tour the galleries independently, this year 18 of the EAF venues are open from 6pm – 9pm for ART LATE, and as well as seeing work from Peter Blake to Bob and Roberta Smith, from graffiti art to the Garden Gallery and from classic painting to the cutting edge of digital technology, there are also free events on offer. These include readings at Collective Gallery by Festival favourite, Phil Kay; printmaking demonstrations at Edinburgh Printmakers, a multi-channel video and performance piece by Alex Hetherington at New Media Scotland at Inspace, and the opening of both the BTOTB Garden Gallery and their Public Art House in Portobello. For full details of participating galleries, events and tours see Notes for Editors.

The ART LATE evening culminates in Smoke and the ART LATE party (free entry until 11pm) at Electric Circus. Rupert Thomson has collaborated with a group of local artists to create a night of music, performance, and nicotine. (No laws will be broken!)