About Us
Future 13
Future 13 is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation established to support artists working within the context of the Edinburgh Festivals. We exist to respond to the realities of contemporary performance making, where access, environmental responsibility, and hybrid forms of practice must be addressed as foundational conditions rather than optional additions.
Future 13 operates primarily in Scotland, with international activity where it supports research, knowledge exchange, and best practice that benefits the Scottish cultural ecology. While our work is grounded in the specific pressures and opportunities of the Edinburgh Festivals, our learning is intended to circulate more widely through shared tools, conversations, and partnerships.
We are driven by values
We are building the organisation at a measured pace. Our approach prioritises listening, pilot activity, and responsive development rather than rapid expansion. This allows us to remain accountable to artists and partners while adapting to changing conditions of cultural production. Future 13 is governed by a Board of Charity Trustees and operates for public benefit. As our programmes and partnerships continue to develop, we invite artists, collaborators, and supporters to engage with us and help shape what comes next.
Accessible
Our work begins with access. We understand accessibility as the practice of designing and presenting cultural experiences so that people of different abilities, identities, and circumstances can participate fully as artists, collaborators, and audiences. This includes attention to venue and site design, communication and interpretation, relaxed and neurodivergent adapted presentations, online participation, and the everyday conditions of care that enable people to take part in cultural life. Access is not a specialist add on. It is a core responsibility that shapes how work is conceived, produced, and shared.
Sustainable
Sustainability sits alongside access as a central concern. We approach sustainability as both environmental responsibility and long term cultural resilience. This includes sustainable touring models, ecoscenography and sustainable design, artist wellbeing, plant based and low impact choices, waste reduction, health and safety, and meaningful approaches to impact assessment. Within the Festival context, where intensity and scale place significant pressure on people and places, Future 13 aims to support practices that are viable now without compromising the future.
Hybrid
Hybrid practice forms the third strand of our work and is shaped by the first two. We use hybridity to describe performance practices that integrate in person and digitally networked elements so that artists and audiences can share experiences across physical and virtual space. This includes work with streaming, extended reality, networked performance, digital identity and licensing, archiving, and the thoughtful use of artificial intelligence tools. Hybrid approaches can expand access, reduce environmental impact, and create new artistic possibilities when they are supported with care and intention.
