How to create a virtual exhibition: A 360° Gallery made with Canva and ThingLink!

Kyla Ball March 18, 2025

We show you how to make your own interactive 360° virtual art gallery with our Canva template and ThingLink

The ThingLink Team have devised a quick and easy way to create an impressive 360  2:1 panorama gallery image. Customize our template to create a virtual art exhibition, any kind of virtual event or online exhibition. The template we have created in Canva is available for you to copy and create your own. Now you can display your art pieces in your own online exhibition space or virtual museum.

Share it as an embed, a link, on social media platforms, or even using VR (virtual reality) mode for an immersive VR exhibition experience. When any changes or updates are required, changes are made in real-time everywhere that your gallery is shared.

A Fake It 360 in Action – Explore the Gallery of Snowy Art!

Here’s what your blank copy should look like:

Now over to you – create your own copy here!

How to create your own 360  images from our Canva Template: quick tutorial 

1. Create your own copy from our template – link above.
2. Simply upload your images into Canva ready to insert into your copy. You’ll now be able to drop them into the placeholders in your own 360°  Image.
3. Download your new gallery image as a JPEG file.

Now you can ThingLink It!

1. In ThingLink click on the blue Create button, then choose 360 image. Choose ‘Upload from device’.
2. The image will now appear in the edit view ready for your multimedia tags to be added.
3. Share your ThingLink when ready – embed into your site or page or share with the link.

How else can I use the interactive 360 images?

• Why not create a top ten gallery on a favourite or current subject that your learners are studying? This is a great discussion starter as the carousel style of this “digital art gallery” does not place an order on the top ten or hierarchy. Use embedded tags to conduct research and collect data.

• Use the carousel to create a timeline or demonstrate an ongoing cycle or process.

• Ask learners to create their own online gallery to share with their group or class, provide images or ask them to curate their own.

• Create a virtual space or showroom for your product as part of your marketing strategy, with different benefits highlighted in each image, and explored in more detail via the interactive tags.

More ideas and tips on using your 360 images

• Why not add audio to the carousel to really bring your immersive experience and context to life?
• Why not add a beautiful backdrop to your new gallery? You can achieve this by adding a 360° image (equirectangular) to your Canva template copy. Try downloading our 360° sample image and uploading to your Canva media and setting as the background, the outcome is shown below.

*Please note you are unable to download the images from the ThingLink 360° Image Gallery for this purpose.

The easy new way to create 360 images: Pano to 360

NEW! Creating virtual tours, exhibitions, escape rooms and other immersive content just got even easier! ThingLink has now launched Pano to 360 by ThingLink: an easy way to create a 360 photosphere from a panoramic image using any smartphone. For more information, including step-by-step instructions see this helpful support article. 

ThingLink 360 Image Library

ThingLink’s royalty-free 360° image library is available to all ThingLink users. There you can find and use some incredible scenes from all over our planet – including UNESCO world heritage sites, cityscapes and historical landmarks.

The ThingLink Team are often asked for advice on how else to create 360 images. We have created support pages on taking 360 images using a 360 camera.

Looking for more inspiration on how to create a digital exhibition?

Read how museum educators and exhibition organizers at real galleries have been using ThingLink to create virtual exhibitions for global audiences.

• Highland Folk Museum: includes annotated 3d models and immersive tours of recreated heritage buildings in this real-world open air museum.
• V&A Dundee: Scottish design museum widens access to museum exhibitions with ThingLink.
• Royal Ontario Museum: Includes video tutorial on tour navigation for an optimal user experience.
• Vermont Art Online: State-wide virtual tour of galleries and museums in ThingLink created during the pandemic when visits to physical exhibitions weren’t possible.

Discover how ThingLink’s AR App helped in-person visitors explore an annual art show

ThingLink’s user-friendly AR App can be used by even complete beginners to add an augmented reality self-guided tour to any exhibition, display or event. Add a layer of interactive information for users to explore via their own mobile device, with an instantly downloadable app. The same easy content creation flow as the main ThingLink multimedia editor. Learn more about the amazingly simple but powerful AR App in the article below.