Lives Less Ordinary

Pearl Alcock / Vanley Burke / Chila Kumari Singh Burman / Joanne Coates / Beryl Cook / Julie Cook / Connor Coulston / Creative Black Country / Leslie Duxbury / Joan Eardley / Feministo! / Martin Figura / Jimmy Floyd / Denzil Forrester / Sandra George / Julian Germain / Ken Grant / Derrick Greaves / Margaret Green / Bert Hardy / Chris Harrison / Mahtab Hussain / Izabela Jedrzejczyk / Jasleen Kaur / Neil Kenlock / Chris Killip / Sirkka Liisa Konttinen / Mark Leckey / Roman Manfredi / Masterji / Rene Matić / Tish Murtha / Kelly O’Brien / Hardeep Pandhal / Robert Parkinson / Hetain Patel / Charlie Phillips / Ceri Richards / Bob Robinson / Anne Ryan / Corbin Shaw / George Shaw / Jack Smith / Jo Spence / Hannah Starkey / Emilie Taylor / Ten 8 Ltd / Triple Transformations / Eric Tucker / Gavin Watson / Matthew Arthur Williams / Richard Young

Our 2025 exhibition explored the overlooked richness and diversity of working-class life and creative expression from the 1950s to now.

Challenging long-standing inequities and misrepresentation, this exhibition presented compelling assertions of pride, tenderness, resilience, humour and hopefulness, and moments of play, joy and rest. Looking beyond the often reductive narratives of crisis and struggle that traditionally characterise representation of working-class people and communities in British arts institutions, Lives Less Ordinary championed a gaze from within, from artists from working-class backgrounds who have used their creativity to reflect wide-ranging experiences and identities, depicting and defining their culture and communities on their own terms.

Lives Less Ordinary brought together ceramics, film, painting, photography and sculpture from wide-ranging public collections, archives, and contemporary artists across the UK, to explore a nuanced and authentic reflection of working-class experience, within an architectural setting that both manifests and interrogates wealth and privilege.

Lives Less Ordinary was a Two Temple Place exhibition, conceived and curated by Samantha Manton.

The exhibition was supported by Museum as Muck, the Working Class British Art Network, Working Class Creatives Database and Working Arts Club, as well as an advisory group of noted advocates for those underrepresented in the arts sector – Beth Hughes, Michelle McGrath, Jon Sleigh & Afia Yeboah.

The exhibition was accompanied by a wide-ranging programme of cultural events for adults and children including talks, lectures, demonstrations, workshops and Wednesday Late openings until 9pm, as well as the acclaimed Two Temple Place programme for state sector primary schools.

Lives Less Ordinary was open from 25 January until 20 April 2025.

We welcome feedback from anyone who’s visited our exhibitions. If you would like to give us feedback about Lives Less Ordinary, you can do that here. Thank you!