Ashington - Arts and Culture

Arts and Culture

In 1934 some of the Ashington miners enrolled in painting classes as an alternative pastime, and then began to produce paintings to sell at local markets to supplement their poor wages. They achieved unexpected success and approval from the art community and were given prestigious gallery exhibitions during the 1930s and 1940s under the name "The Pitmen Painters", although the group had called themselves the "Ashington Group". In the 1970s the group's work was "rediscovered" and popularised as "workers' art" and given international exhibitions. On 26 October 2006 a new £16m museum housing the work was opened in Ashington by The Princess Royal.

The book Pitman Painters by William Feaver, recording the development of the Ashington Group, 1934 to 1984, has been made into a stage play by Lee Hall, well known for Billy Elliot. The play premiered at the Live Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, in 2007, and subsequently was produced at the Royal National Theatre, London in 2008 and 2009. A German translation by Michael Raab premiered at the Volkstheater in Vienna, Austria, in April 2009. In 2011 Oscar/BAFTA award winning Film Director Jon Blair made a film for ITV1's Perspectives Arts series, entitled Robson Green and The Pitmen Painters giving an insight into the lives and work of The Ashington Group including rare film footage of the group in their Hut including interviews with Oliver Kilbourne and Harry Wilson.

Ashington has appeared in various films and TV programmes, such as Spender starring Jimmy Nail, Our Friends in the North in 1996, The Fast Show on BBC2 and the Alcan chimneys were seen in Billy Elliot.

We Never Had It So Good by David Williams published by Zymurgy is a collection of short stories about a young boy growing up in Ashington in the late 1950s.

The mining workers of Ashington gave a 'Hooky mat' to their friends in Ashington, West Sussex, where it is now displayed in the village hall.