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