For many years, after the Scottish Arts Council withdrew its annual grant in 1980 following controversy associated with Joseph Beuys' support for Jimmy Boyle, the Demarco Gallery led a financially straitened existence.

Demarco has presented several thousand art exhibitions, plays, music, conferences, and various other performances, mainly in Edinburgh, involving artists from at least sixty countries, including all of central and eastern Europe during the Cold War, North and South America, all countries of western Europe, Australasia, and from Southern Africa, Middle East, and other parts of Asia.

Exhibitions and festival programmes were also organised by him and his Demarco European Arts Foundation in other countries including Poland, Lithuania, Croatia, Bosnia, Malta, Georgia, Hungary, Italy to name but a few.

Many of the artists, actors, directors, musicians, film makers who first appeared outside their home countries at his Edinburgh festival venues subsequently became world-renowned such as Tadeusz Kantor, Yvette Bozsik, and Marina Abramović.

For instance, in 1995, his venue hosted a group of artists flown out from the then besieged city of Sarajevo alongside an opera installation by the young Damien Hirst.

During the Cold War Demarco crossed the Iron Curtain 100 times bringing hundreds of artists and arts groups out of Central and Eastern Europe to perform at the Edinburgh Festival.

Richard Demarco and Xela Batchelder (now a full-time Associate Professor) still collaborate on educational and festival type projects, but on a smaller scale.

Since the 2011 festival, moving from Craigcrook Castle, Demarco's new home for his archives, exhibitions, theatre and other events is Summerhall at the East end of The Meadows, Edinburgh Southside, Europe's largest private multi-arts centre where 1,300 productions including over 100 art shows are staged annually.

Summerhall was for a century the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies until purchased from Edinburgh University in November 2011 by buyers closely associated with Demarco over many years.

In 2012 he received gold medals simultaneously from both Germany and Poland following a major retrospective entitled Ten Dialogues at the Royal Scottish Academy.

An impression of Demarco's handprints has been immortalised on a flagstone in the City Chambers quadrangle alongside previous Edinburgh Award recipients Ian Rankin, JK Rowling, George Kerr, Sir Chris Hoy, Professor Peter Higgs and Elizabeth Blackadder.