Panorama

Name: Panorama
Start: 2025-07-09T00:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-12-21T23:59:59+00:00
Location: Collective Gallery’s Hillside

A programme inspired by the very first panorama, invented on Calton Hill.

Archive Exhibitions

9 Jul 2025 – 21 Dec 2025

Collective Gallery’s Hillside

Our site on Calton Hill is long associated with science, astronomy and timekeeping, as well as a place for art and close observation. Our Panorama programme takes inspiration from the origins of the panorama to explore how we see, move through and understand the city today.

In 1788, Irish artist Robert Barker created the first panorama – a 360-degree image capturing a continuous view of Edinburgh from Calton Hill. The original drawings were made by his son, Henry Aston Barker, from Observatory House – the oldest building on our site. Their work marks Calton Hill’s early connection to both scientific study and artistic innovation.

At the centre of our Hillside Gallery is a large-scale reproduction of the 1792 aquatint of Barker’s Panorama of Edinburgh, offering a rare and detailed view of the late 18th-century cityscape.

Continuing this legacy, we are inviting contemporary artists and audiences to respond to our site’s histories and contexts. The gallery serves as a hub for reading, research, public events and activities.

Robert and Henry Aston Barker’s Panorama of Edinburgh from Calton Hill, 1788, aquatint, hand-coloured, 1792. Image courtesy of the University of Edinburgh.

Gala Panorama

A commissioned piece by Josie Valley

Josie Vallely (aka Quinie) has created Gala Panorama, a 360° view of community celebration from the top of Calton Hill.

Originally developed for Collective Gala 2025, Quinie has created these five prints, collaging together the Gala traditions of the communities visible from Calton Hill, onto Robert Barker’s panoramic print.

Quinie’s practice blends folk traditions, research and visual art to explore themes of Scots language, memory, land, and belonging. She reimagines Scottish traditional songs through contemporary arrangements and collaborative performance. Her artistic practice involves research, collaboration with animals (particularly horses), and a focus on traditions that emerge from everyday life.

Artist Residencies

We welcomed artists to undertake short residencies over late summer and autumn responding to the themes of the Panorama and resulting in public events.

The first resident was Lucas Priest. Priest is the founder of the School of Pedestrian Culture – a mock-institution designed to disorient how we encounter space and place across Scotland’s central belt. He took up residency from August 2025, using the panorama as a lens to explore the changing city and how we experience it.

Amanda Thomson began her residency in Autumn 2025. Her work centres around nature and our place within it, bringing fresh perspectives to our relationship with the hill and the city, considering all kinds of movements, migration and change over time.