A Matter of Precedents by Annette Krauss opens on 1 June, as a research resource in the Library.
This collaborative long-term research project reflects on Collective’s move to the City Observatory and explores the site’s designation as a ‘common good asset’.
The project launches with two walking conversations on 1 & 2 June led by Annette Krauss and other artists and cultural thinkers, and will visit common good sites in Edinburgh.
18 June – 4 September
backwash, an exhibition of new work by Camara Taylor, opens in the Hillside on 18 June. The exhibition consists of new video and mixed-media work relating to the artist’s ongoing conversation with Scottish waterways and a collection of public papers spanning several centuries. Camara Taylor is a participant in Satellites, Collective’s development programme for emergent pracitioners based in Scotland.
25 June – 18 September
On 25 June The Beast by Ruth Ewan will open in the City Dome.
A new animation, presented alongside archival material, focuses on the Scottish/American steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and his namesake Diplodocus carnegii. The exhibition explores intersecting ideas around power, exploitation, culture and the history of capitalism. The animation has been co-written with Marxist magician and professor of theatre studies Dr Ian Saville.
Edinburgh4Europe will mark Europe Day by launching two new EuroWalks in Edinburgh, highlighting connections with our European neighbours.
What will you do on Europe Day this year? The European Movement in Scotland (EMiS) will mark the day by celebrating Scotland’s historic, and contemporary, links with our European neighbours. They have created a series of EuroWalks across Scotland to take in local landmarks with connections to European figures, places or historical events.
Edinburgh4Europe, the local EMiS group, is delighted to welcome Ben Macpherson (MSP for Edinburgh Northern and Leith) for the official opening of their Leith EuroWalk on Saturday, 7th May, at 11am outside the Custom House in Leith (65-67 Commercial Street).
The EuroWalk highlights a variety of Leith’s links to Europe, including Mary of Guise, Norwegian whalers and trades with the Baltic states.
On Monday, 9th May, a group of EMiS volunteers will lead a guided tour on a EuroWalk around Calton Hill.
The walk will start at 5.30pm from the Paolozzi Statues on Picardy Place:
The walking routes, with photos and information, can be found at this link: link: https://eurowalks.scot/, so these can be followed in person or investigated from your own home.
Looking to the future, the plan is to continue the growth of EuroWalks in collaboration with organisations such as Visit Scotland and to create a network of walks across Scotland, in cities, towns and the countryside, which collectively help us to celebrate our rich European heritage.
EMiS hopes these will achieve the twin aim of educating local residents (including the tens of thousands of European citizens who live in Scotland) and teaching visitors more about the connections between their own countries and Scotland.
EMiS wants this to be a truly collaborative, grassroots venture, drawing on ideas from people and communities across Scotland. Most of all, they hope to demonstrate the rich variety and scope of Scotland’s ties to the European continent. Because Europe is our past, Europe is our present and Europe is our future.
If you want to join in this enjoyable volunteer-led initiative, or have ideas or knowledge about a local European connection to include, please contact the EuroWalks team at walks4europe@gmail.com.
Edinburgh4Europe:
Edinburgh for Europe is a group that came together during the campaign in 2018 for a People’s Vote on the deal secured by the UK government to leave the EU. We are made up of people who are Scottish or EU citizens or both.
We are affiliated to the European Movement in Scotland, a movement which started after World War II and before the economic union began. We work to maintain good relations with citizens of European countries and to mitigate the effects of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.
Collective is delighted to host artist Cauleen Smith in Edinburgh to produce a new public performance, in association with her 2014 film H-E-L-L-O currently screening in our City Dome.
At the centre of H-E-L-L-O is John Williams’ famous five-note musical motif from Stephen Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Working with Collective’s unique landscape, architecture and backdrop, the artist’s specially devised performance will take place across Calton Hill and will feature five locally based musicians playing Williams’ score as a ‘call and response’ on their bass clef instruments.
The installation of Cauleen Smith’s film in our City Dome, which is screening until 15 May, brings the themes of H-E-L-L-O into conversation with her long-term interest in astronomy and coastal cities. The piece bears witness to the devastating impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and hones in on the damage that has been done to the long established African American community through the city’s eagerness to embrace regeneration.
Collective is situated in an exposed location on top of Calton Hill and this will be an outdoor performance, so please check the forecast and dress accordingly.
This is a free, drop-in event, no pre-booking needed.
Collective is now open from Tuesday – Sunday, 10am—5pm
Visit Collective this Easter break to experience a range of creative workshops suitable for children of all ages – from workshops celebrating rainwater in partnership with Edinburgh Science Festival, to drop-in creative sessions exploring our PLAY programme, and a final weekend of activities inspired by our current exhibition H-E-L-L-O by artist Cauleen Smith.
Edinburgh Science Festival: Rain Harvest
9–10 April 11am—12.30pm & 2—3.30pm £5 | Book in advance
Join in with the 2022 Edinburgh Science Festival and explore the beauty and vitality of rainwater in this hands-on, sensory workshop that blends art, science and play.
11–22 April Tuesday – Sunday, 10am—4pm Free | No booking needed
Throughout the Easter holidays, families are warmly invited to drop in to Collective and join us at our Play Shelter and Hillside spaces to take part in a range of art activities related to our year-round Collective Play programme.
Collective PLAY Weekend: Vibrations
23–24 April, 11am—4pm Free | No booking needed
Join us for a final Easter holiday weekend of free outdoor play and creative activities for children and families, inspired by our current exhibition H-E-L-L-O by Cauleen Smith.
A limited number of quiet slots are available on 23 April for families and children with autism or sensory learning disabilities.
Hidden Door is delighted to announce that we will be bringing the old Royal High School on Calton Hill to life for a ten day festival of live music, visual art, dance, theatre and spoken word.
The property, which has mostly lain empty since the school closed in the late 1960s, will be used to celebrate Scotland’s exciting new and emerging creative talent, before work begins to transform it into Scotland’s new National Centre for Music.
The festival will completely transform the entire complex from 9 – 18 June 2022.
Inside the vast building, forgotten rooms will be transformed into performance spaces and given over to artists to fill with installations. The audience will be encouraged to explore the myriad of passageways, corridors, nooks and crannies that make up this remarkable building.
One of the most impressive rooms, the central debate chamber, will host specially commissioned in-the-round performances and spectacular events that respond to the unique space.
Outside, a stage will be built for large music performances and a bar will take over the front terrace, giving festival goers a unique view on the city.
Launch Event Friday 03.12.21, 7–9pm Book free tickets here
In 2011, the explosion of riots in English cities prompted much moralising from Scotland’s political, policing and media establishments on why the outbreak never reached Glasgow. Not for the first time, the country’s elites appeared to be attributing the lack of rioting to the particular characteristics of Glasgow’s working class communities.
The fearful part of it was the absence is a new exhibition by writer Joey Simons which investigates the periodic eruption and absence of rioting in Glasgow, and its effect on the shape of the city.
Taking its title from Henry Cockburn’s observations on the ‘terrible silence’ and ‘fearful absence of riot’ that characterised the great demonstrations in Scotland in support of parliamentary reform in 1832, Joey’s exhibition pieces together a constellation of historical and contemporary sources to explore a recurring pattern of response and erasure to collective violence in the city.
For the exhibition, Joey presents a montage of audio-visual material, texts, poetry, a wall drawing and audio. Videos made by Joey and the photographer Jack Wrigley depict their friends reciting texts ordered around riots and their relationship to silence, language, violence, geography and weather.
Recitals take place on sites of historical riots in Glasgow, today many of which are derelict, demolished in preparation for private development, or in the process of gentrification.
Join us on Friday 3 December, 7-9pm, to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. This is an open event and all are welcome. Much of the event will take place outdoors in our new ‘Play Shelter’ so please dress for the weather!
Numbers inside the exhibition will be monitored in line with social distancing advice so a short wait may be required.
Capacity is limited due to social distancing so please RSVP by booking a free ticket on Eventbrite.
Barratt East Scotland, which includes both Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes, has fundraised £16,000 for their new charity partner, St Columba’s Hospice Care.
Taking on the seven hills challenge to reach the top of Calton Hill, Castle Rock, Corstorphine Hill, Craiglockhart Hill, Braid Hill, Blackford Hill, and Arthur’s Seat, 19 Barratt East employees completed the capital city hike in under seven hours as part of their fundraising efforts.
St Columba’s Hospice Care is an independent charity that has been providing vital hospice and end of life care to people with incurable illness and their families for over 40 years. Throughout the pandemic, the Hospice Team has continued to offer their services to those who need it most across Edinburgh and the Lothians – be that at home, in care settings or at the Hospice itself.
The donation from the Barratt East Scotland team will help to ensure the hospice can continue to offer its support to people in local communities across the capital. As well as nursing and medical care, the Hospice offers patients and their families whatever social, practical, emotional and spiritual support they may need, from physiotherapy and counselling, to immersive art and music therapy.
Alison Condie, Managing Director at Barratt East Scotland, said: “St Columba’s Hospice Care carries out incredible work supporting patients and their families. We’re pleased to be able to help with our donation and hope it allows them to continue to provide these crucial and important services.”
Speaking of the donation Amanda Southey, Corporate Development Manager for St Columba’s Hospice Care added:“We’d like to say a huge thank you to the employees of Barratt East Scotland for their incredible efforts.
“Challenges like ‘7 Hills’ raise vital funds for the Hospice and help us to deliver high-quality, specialist care and support to those that need it most across Edinburgh and the Lothians.
“After what has been a very challenging year for us, we’re delighted to have the support of such an enthusiastic team and can’t wait to see how our new partnership develops over the coming year!”
As part of its community benefits programme, the five-star housebuilder works with a wide range of local causes, and has continued to step up its efforts through the Barratt and David Wilson Community Fund.
Now in its third year, the Community Fund pledges to donate £1,000 each month to a charity or organisation in the east of Scotland. Charities are nominated by and voted for by employees of Barratt Homes and the focus for the fund continues to be on organisations that improve the quality of life for those living in the area.
ditto ditto ditto is a cross-media installation in our Hillside space which marks a significant point in Alison’s expansive research project around weather.
Building on two years of archival, performative and collaborative research ditto, ditto, ditto includes new writing, sound, custom wallpaper, moving image and sculptural elements. The exhibition title comes from time spent in the Scottish Meteorological Society’s archives, where Alison examined personal weather diaries and found this phrase often used as short-hand for ‘same again/ likewise/ repeats’.
ditto, ditto, ditto invites viewers to navigate discrete and rich elements, each of which shifts scale: from personal and embodied, to global systems of observation; from analogue and local, to mass-media digital infrastructure.
The exhibition unveils implicit authorities in anecdotal diaristic notations of weather, offering a point of stark contrast between this historic sense of stability and the faltering rhythms of climate breakdown that forms a backdrop to the project.
Pre-booking is not necessary, but please note that you may have to queue to enter the exhibition due to ongoing social distancing measures.
Satellites Programme is Collective’s development programme for emergent artists and producers based in Scotland.
The former Royal High School has been put on the open market by the City of Edinburgh Council for interested parties to submit development proposals in return for a long lease of the building.
The Council’s Finance and Resources Committee agreed in January in a private session that the historic and iconic building on Calton Hill would be remarketed, signifying the start of a new chapter for the site which lies at the heart of Edinburgh’s original World Heritage Site.
Any proposals need to ensure a sustainable long term future for the Royal High School, be of the highest architectural quality and take into account the conclusions drawn by the Scottish Ministers following the public inquiry.
Councillor Rob Munn, Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said:“This an important step forward for the future of this iconic site and means we can identify the best value option for the city and our residents in the future.
“We know there are a number of interested parties and having it back on the market allows them to submit any development proposals.”
Councillor Joan Griffiths, Vice Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, added: “There was unanimous agreement earlier in the year to remarket the old Royal High School and I look forward to seeing the options presented to us at a future committee which could occupy this very important building, so prominent in our World Heritage site.“
Helpless Portobello schoolgirl abandoned on freezing winter’s night
A 20 year old man who caused the death of an underage girl by buying her alcohol and abandoning her on a freezing winter’s night has been jailed for three yearsand two months.
When Ewan Fulton, then 18, left 15-year-old Mhari O’Neill, she was not wearing a jacket and was too drunk to walk.
A dog walker found her body on Calton Hill the next morning. on 7 December 2018.
Pathologists said the probable cause of the teenager’s death was hypothermia, with intoxication.
Last month Fultonappeared at the High Court in Edinburgh andadmitted killing Mhairi, who was 15, after buying her alcohol and abandoning her on Calton Hill on 7 December 2018.
Fulton pleaded guilty to culpable homicide. He admitted taking part in sexual activity with the under-age schoolgirl, culpably and recklessly endangering her health and life, and exposing her to risk of injury and death.
Ewan Fulton, who was 18 at the time, bit and throttled Mhari O’Neill, before abandoning her.
Fulton first met Mhari through social media site Yubo.
On the fateful night Fulton said he had bought a large bottle of vodka for them to share after he travelled to Edinburgh from Livingston to meet her.
Fulton told police Portobello High School student Mhari had been so drunk that she kept falling off a bench and could not walk. He claimed he was starting to panic and knew he needed to get the last train home. He maintained he told her several times he was leaving, but did not get a response as she was “unable to speak”.
The following day Fulton, a shop worker, sent Mhairi a text asking: “Are you alive?” He also sent text messages to friends, explaining: “I had no choice but to leave, what was I supposed to do?” and “I got her drunk she’s 15”. He told another friend: “That girl has a family and if I had stayed she would be alive.”
Fulton, from Livingston, abandoned the girl “in a remote and exposed location” in a state of partial undress without means to contact anyone and failed to seek help for her.
The culpable homicide charge stated Fulton behaved with “utter disregard” for the consequences of his actions towards her.
Det Insp Susan Balfour from Police Scotland’s major investigation team said: “This has been a distressing time for Mhari’s family and our thoughts remain with them and her friends.
“We welcome the conviction of Ewan Fulton and hope it brings some comfort to Mhari’s loved ones.”
