THE heritage of coal mining and its communities can be seen in a new exhibition which opens on Monday.
Seeing The Whole Picture is a collection of art and photography, which goes on display at the National Coal Mining Museum for England, until January.
The exhibition marks the culmination of a four-year long period of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Collecting Cultures scheme.
This funding has allowed the museum near Grange Moor to add new art and photographic works to its collections and to continue working with present-day and former coalfield communities to discover more about coal mining’s heritage.
The works of art that have been added to the museum’s collection include paintings by eminent miner-artists Tom McGuinness and Norman Cornish; paintings by Peter Howson, Josef Herman and Keith Vaughan and a collection of works by George William Bissill.
Alongside the artworks is a selection of newly acquired photographs, with a specific focus of images taken during the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike.
These include the work of prolific photographers such as Don McCullin, John Davies, Keith Pattison, Homer Sykes, John Bulmer, Martin Jenkinson, Don McPhee and Denis Thorpe.
The exhibition, which runs until January 27, will also feature a new multi-sensory recreation of a piece by George William Bissill and an Art Cart designed so that visitors can select materials and create their own works of art.
Also on display will be work produced by local school and youth groups including Huddersfield Grammar School, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe High School, Kirklees College, Paddock Youth Centre, St Wilfrid’s Catholic High School, City Limits Young People’s Centre and Outwood Grange Academy.
The exhibition will include educational resources created in collaboration with professional artists including a loans box about the 1984/85 strike and a multi-sensory wall hanging of Keith Vaughan’s, Miners Working in a Narrow Seam created by artist Annette Cobley for pupils with special education needs.
For further information, visit www.ncm.org.uk or call 01924 848 806.
Admission to the museum is free and it opens daily 10am to 5pm except December 24 to 26 December and on January 1.
