Gary Kirkham, Leather Cutter. Photographic prints on handmade paper, c.1990 - 92

Exhibition preview – Hard Labour: Work In The West Midlands at the New Art Gallery, Walsall, Gallery Square, from January 12 to May 11 2008.

Exploring the history of labour in the Black Country and the West Midlands, this exhibition offers an in-depth view of the workforce and the types of labour carried out throughout the area.

From as early as 1892, the gallery in Walsall had been collecting pictures of rural scenes and cottages in the country; everything except the real life industrial picture of the West Midlands.

However, by the early 1960s staff at the art gallery realised there was a huge gap in imagery which represented the local industrial landscape and the generations of people who worked on their doorstep.

Edwain Butler Bayliss, Untitled, c.1990, pencil on paper. Collection, The New Art Gallery Walsall

From that moment onwards the collection has grown larger and broader, retrieving art that shows the factories, foundries and workshops that gave the Black Country its name.

The ‘black by day and red by night’ region is famous for its mixed range of labour and production, but it isn’t just industrial heritage represented in the exhibition. The collections cover a broad spectrum of work: mothers and teachers, dog trainers and gamblers, construction workers and even the unemployed.

Myfanwy Kitchin, Factory Scene, Walsall, c.1968 - 1975. Collection, The New Art Gallery Walsall

As well as covering people in their places of work they are also pictured in markets, farms and their own homes.

Visitors are invited to share their memories and recollections of their own working life in the area, which will be shared online at www.artatwalsall.org.uk. Admission to the exhibition is free.

This is an exhibition preview. If you’ve been to see the show, why not let us know what you think?

Jen Walker is the 24 Hour Museum / West Midlands Museums Hub Diversity Arts Journalist for the West Midlands funded by Renaissance. Renaissance is the groundbreaking initiative to transform England's regional museums, led by MLA, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.