The Ashington Group: Jessica Cole and Narbi Price in Conversation
Narbi and Jessica will discuss The Ashington Group and their unique contribution to 20th-century British art history as chroniclers of an already disappearing working class culture.
Jessica Cole is Curator at Museums Northumberland, which manages four museums including Woodhorn Museum – the home of the Ashington Group Permanent Collection. In 2024, she contributed to the exhibition and catalogue Coalface Drawers: 90 Years of the Pitmen Painters with a focused essay on early prints by the Ashington Group. Previously, she was Assistant Curator, Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, where she contributed to exhibitions and publications including Escher X nendo: Between Two Worlds (2019), Goya: Drawings from the Prado Museum (2021), New Australian Printmaking (2022) and Melbourne Now (2023). She has master’s degrees in History of Art from the University of Edinburgh and the Courtauld Institute, and grew up in County Durham.
Dr Narbi Price is a painter, curator and lecturer and a Trustee of The Ashington Group Permanent Collection.
His PhD ‘Repainting the Pitmen: The Ashington Art Group & Robert Lyon – Rethinking Legacy through Archive and Practice’, explored the legacy of the Pitmen Painters through the production of 30 new paintings and curation of two exhibitions and publications. It looked at the post-industrial landscape of Northumberland through the lens of previous artistic activity.
In 2024 he curated ‘Coalface Drawers’, a major new exhibition at Woodhorn Museum, supported by The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. The show celebrated the 90th anniversary of the formation of The Ashington Group, and featured artworks and artefacts that had never before been exhibited.
Doors open from 6.30pm. Talk starts 7pm. The talk will last around an hour including time for questions.
Limited spaces available, booking essential. Please join the waitlist if the event is sold out. Book tickets via Eventbrite or through us directly by emailing info@twotempleplace.org or phoning 0207 836 3715.
This event has been programmed as part of a series of events to accompany the exhibition Lives Less Ordinary. For more public events, please click here.
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