An arts café and community space is planned for a former cinema in Leith and a crowdfunding campaign has been launched to support the project. Sketchy Beats, currently a monthly arts event, are seeking to raise £4,000 for the new venture.



Established earlier this year by Cosima Canneti, Sketchy Beats is a monthly pop-up arts event in the basement of Yellow Bench on Leith Walk. The events fuse traditional life drawing with live music, DJ sets and improvisational dance.



Cosima now plans to open a café within the former cinema building at 208-210 Great Junction Street selling Italian coffee, sandwiches using bread from a local bakery, salads and griddled vegetables to be served in a Sicilian antipasti style. Initially, the café will be BYOB but there are also plans to stock local craft beers and Sicilian wines and Cosima says she aims to create healthy food at a reasonable price to be eaten throughout the day or as an ‘aperitivo’ with a drink in the evening.



The café would also host regular arts events – including life drawing, open mic poetry, craft workshops, film screenings, writing workshops and more. There will also be an emphasis on art throughout the day with sketchbooks and materials available for use by customers and still life objects for sketching.



Sketchy Beats have so far raised more than half of their £4,000 target and will be running their crowdfunding campaign until October 17.

See Time Out's guide to Edinburgh's best coffee shops and cafés.

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