Collective is a

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

centre in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. It is situated on

Calton Hill Calton Hill (; ) is a hill in central Edinburgh, Scotland, situated beyond the east end of Princes Street and included in the city's United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Views of, and f ...

, in the former City Observatory and City Dome site. It offers a programme of exhibitions, guided walking tours, audio walking tours, and events.

History

Collective was established in 1984 as the Artist's Collective Gallery and was located on

Cockburn Street Cockburn Street ( ) is a street in Edinburgh's Old Town, created as a serpentine link from the High Street to Waverley Station in 1856. Originally named Lord Cockburn Street after the then recently deceased Scottish lawyer, judge and litera ...

in Edinburgh until 2013, when it relocated to

. It formed as a response to the artist-run 57 Gallery being absorbed into

Fruitmarket Gallery The Fruitmarket Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since its opening in 1974, the gallery has become part of the Scottish contemporary art scene. After a period of closure to undergo a significant renovation, the g ...

: "Dissenting New 57 members... formed Collective on the basis of the original ’57 constitution", as academic Neil Mulholland has written. Collective fundraised to restore the disused City Observatory site in partnership with

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Dhùn Èideann'') is the local government authority covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Almost half of the council area is the built-up area of Edinburgh, capital of Sco ...

. In 2015, Collective Architecture (no relation to Collective gallery) took over detailed design work of the site after Malcolm Fraser Architects went into liquidation. Collective opened the new site in November 2018 as a centre for contemporary art. It includes the renovated City Observatory and City Dome, and two new buildings: the Hillside, an exhibition space; and the Lookout, a restaurant run by Gardener's Cottage. A new permanent sculptural work, ''Turns'', by Tessa Lynch, was commissioned a part of the landscaping. Kate Gray was Director of Collective from 2009-2021. The current Director is Sorcha Carey.

Programming

Dineo-Seshee-Bopape-when-spirituality-was-a-baby-installation-view-2018

Since it was founded, Collective has supported the work of emerging artists and curators, which it continues through its Satellites Programme. Past participants of the Satellites Programme and its forerunner, New Work Scotland, include Rachel Maclean and Hardeep Pandhal. It hosted feminist academic

Silvia Federici Silvia Federici (; born 1942) is an Italian-American scholar, teacher, and Marxist feminist activist based in New York. She is a professor emerita and teaching fellow at Hofstra University in New York State, where she was a social science prof ...

in 2018. Since its move to Calton Hill, Collective has engaged with the history of the site through its ''Observers' Walks'', a series of audio walks created by artists including Ruth Ewan, Astrid Johnston,

Bedwyr Williams Bedwyr Williams (born 1974 in St. Asaph) is a Welsh artist. He works across varied media including drawing, painting, writing and video.. Biography He studied at St Martins School of Art and Ateliers, Arnhem. In 2004, he won a Paul Hamlyn Awa ...

, Tris Vonna-Michell, Patrick Staff, James Hutchinson, and Catherine Payton. The City Dome at Collective has also hosted new work by artists showing in Scotland for the first time, including

Dineo Seshee Bopape Dineo Seshee Bopape is a South African multimedia artist. Using experimental video montages, sound, found objects, photographs and dense sculptural installations, her artwork "engages with powerful socio-political notions of memory, narration a ...

, Petra Bauer, James Richards, and Julijonas Urbonas.

References

External links

Official site
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