{"id":184457,"date":"2025-12-10T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/184457\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:06:09","slug":"at-a-museum-for-the-art-of-work-these-are-its-masterpieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/184457\/","title":{"rendered":"At a museum for the art of work, these are its masterpieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year, Canadians spend an average 1,700 hours working<\/a>. That\u2019s more than two whole months on the clock.<\/p>\n

Add to that sobering stat that our jobs not only structure our time, but determine our finances and lifestyles too, and it\u2019s shocking we don\u2019t talk about work much, much more.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s only brick-and-mortar museum dedicated to the culture of labour stands on a small side street in north-end Hamilton. The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (WAHC) was established in 1995 by a group of labour historians, artists, union activists and community organizers as a place to explore the stories of working-class life through art and history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Canadian industrial hub provides an invaluable setting to discuss the ways people work, says WAHC executive director Tara Bursey. \u201cHamilton is actually the cradle of Canada\u2019s labour movement.\u201d She cites the first demonstrations of the Nine-Hour Movement (which fought for shorter work days) and the influential steelworkers\u2019 strike of 1946. \u201cSome really important gains happened here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the Ontario steel town is at the frontlines of the U.S.-Canada trade war, and the city\u2019s historic industries, as well as their workers, face major change. These realities make the conversations hosted by this community-based museum with a national mandate feel both present and pressing.<\/p>\n

\"InInstallation view of the exhibition Thirty for Thirty at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton. (Tara Bursey)<\/p>\n

Inside, visitors will find displays of heritage objects, such as punch clocks, retirement wrist watches and a food courier\u2019s delivery bag, alongside contemporary art exhibitions on subjects like healthcare for precarious workers<\/a> and the future of the garment industry<\/a>. The museum holds \u201cone of the most significant\u201d collections of trade union banners in the country, Bursey says (a selection of which are currently on view in one of the first-floor galleries).<\/p>\n

In the book The Art of Solidarity, Canadian labour historians Rob Kristofferson and Stephanie Ross say: \u201cCulture and heritage are essential to making sense of our individual and collective experiences and of expressing them in the context of a society that marginalizes these experiences or makes them invisible.\u201d They point to a tradition of artistic expression among working people that includes protest music, commemorative murals and poster-making.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt here seems to serve as a catalyst for conversations,\u201d Bursey says. It is a \u201cgentler, more appealing\u201d entry point to discuss \u201cconfrontational histories, difficult realities and stories of struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

For WAHC\u2019s 30th anniversary this year, the museum dug into its collection for the Thirty for Thirty<\/a> exhibition \u2014 30 objects representing the centre\u2019s three decades dedicated to working-class stories. Curated by Bursey alongside artist and educator Sylvia Nickerson, the show exemplifies the many different concepts of work that WAHC explores today, including unpaid work, remote work, care work, sex work, migrant work and gig work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bursey and programming specialist Ada Bierling showed CBC Arts around the Thirty for Thirty exhibition, highlighting a few of their favourite \u201ctreasures\u201d as well as the stories they tell.<\/p>\n

\"HangingInstallation view of signs from The Lusty Lady in the exhibition Thirty for Thirty at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton. (Tara Bursey)Signs from The Lusty Lady, 2000<\/p>\n

In 1997, a San Francisco peep show named The Lusty Lady became the first unionized sex business in the U.S. (A Guardian headline called it the \u201cworld\u2019s only unionized peep show.\u201d<\/a>) In 2003, the business was bought by the dancers who worked there and run as a co-op. The establishment closed a decade later after failed rent negotiations, shutting its doors, poetically, on Labour Day 2013.<\/p>\n

So how did the pair of light box marquees travel roughly 4,000 kilometres from the North Beach landmark to land in this collection of labour artifacts in southwestern Ontario? Hamilton-based sex worker advocate Jelena Vermilion acquired the signs after building relationships with some of the original Lusty Lady owner-workers. She then gifted the objects to WAHC. \u201cI wanted them because they\u2019re powerful relics of sex-worker-led labour organizing, and I felt a responsibility to help publicly preserve that important history,\u201d Vermilion says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir inclusion [in the exhibition] is a small but powerful act of historical reparation, which affirms that sex workers\u2019 struggles and victories aren\u2019t footnotes; rather, their stories \u2026 truly belong within the wider history of the labour movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ADetail view of the photo series No Trespassing by Cees van Gemerden installed in Thirty for Thirty at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton. (Tara Bursey)Cees van Gemerden, No Trespassing, 1989<\/p>\n

Since moving to Hamilton in the mid-1980s, photographers and activists Cees and Annerie van Gemerden have documented the city\u2019s downtown core.<\/p>\n

Cees\u2019 No Trespassing is a 1989 series of 78 photos displayed in a tight grid. The black-and-white images document the six-foot fence that once ran roughly the length of the city\u2019s lakefront, cordoning off the industrial lands and severing access to Hamilton Harbour for residents. The photos are each accompanied by a block of text \u2014 some are the artist\u2019s first-hand observations, while others are clipped from daily newspaper articles concerning the environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis piece makes me think very literally about the changing landscape of Hamilton,\u201d Bierling says. It is a very clear document that shows how the city itself prioritized industry over stewardship and the well-being of its citizens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In multiple photos, people have hopped the fence \u2014 in defiance of the ever-present \u201cNo Trespassing\u201d signs \u2014 to enjoy the water.<\/p>\n

\"TwoIWW songbooks, published by Industrial Workers of the World, installed in Thirty for Thirty at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton. (Tara Bursey)IWW songbooks, 1968 and 1970<\/p>\n

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) \u2014 a revolutionary union which began at the turn of the 20th century \u2014 has published its Little Red Songbook for more than 100 years. The book\u2019s cover bears the famous catchphrase: \u201cTo fan the flames of discontent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The publication contains lyrics for popular labour songs, such as Joe Hill\u2019s The Rebel Girl, as well other pro-worker anthems set to the tunes of well-known hymns, carols and pop songs. (I\u2019m Dreaming of a Fair Contract sung like I\u2019m Dreaming of a White Christmas, for instance.)<\/p>\n

The books represent the rallying role of art and culture within the labour movement, says Bursey. \u201cThey’re artistic objects, they look beautiful, they’re portable, but they’re also really important organizing tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Little Red Songbook is still in print today<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"HangingInstallation view of a Vietnamese-English labour board notice in Thirty for Thirty at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton (Tara Bursey)Vietnamese labour board vote notice, 1985<\/p>\n

In February 1985, a vote was held to decide if the United Steelworkers Union (USW) would represent the workers of Lenworth Metal \u2014 a manufacturer in the Toronto neighbourhood of Rexdale. At the time, Lenworth\u2019s workforce included a large population of Vietnamese refugees who\u2019d settled in the predominantly immigrant community over the previous decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The quotidian-looking notice hanging on the museum wall is actually the \u201cfirst of its kind\u201d to be issued in both English and Vietnamese by the USW, says Bierling. The artifact contests an image of workers\u2019 struggles that is too often white and Eurocentric.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheButton Banner by Carole Cond\u00e9 and Karl Beveridge, part of the Cond\u00e9 Memorial Collection at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton. (Brody Robinmeyer)Karl Beveridge and Carole Cond\u00e9, Button Banner, 1980s-2024<\/p>\n

Partners in life, art and activism, Karl Beveridge and Carole Cond\u00e9 were a Canadian creative duo renowned for labour and community arts. The pair have been \u201cmassively influential\u201d to WAHC since its inception, says Bursey \u2014 Beveridge as a founder and Cond\u00e9 as a founding member. (In the decade beforehand, Cond\u00e9 and Beveridge also helped launch Toronto\u2019s Mayworks Festival<\/a>, which celebrated its own 40th anniversary this past spring.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Cond\u00e9 passed away in July 2024, Beveridge donated their personal collection of labour heritage objects and artworks to WAHC. The Cond\u00e9 Memorial Collection<\/a> includes nearly 500 items.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty for Thirty was an opportunity for us to honour Carol Cond\u00e9’s legacy and the role of our founders in shaping this place,\u201d says Bursey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A centrepiece of the exhibition, one object came to the museum straight from the couple\u2019s dining room wall. Button Banner is a piece of black velvet trimmed in shiny red satin and gold tassels that\u2019s been festooned with hundreds of union buttons, pins and clips. Beveridge collected the objects from flea markets, antiques stores and friends since the early 1980s, and Cond\u00e9 fashioned the banner so the collection could be displayed in their home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s an incredible object,\u201d says Bursey. \u201cIt\u2019s the manifestation of Carol and Karl working together to preserve labour heritage in their own way through this private process of collecting.\u201d It represents their \u201cdecades of dedication,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Thirty for Thirty<\/a> is on view through Dec. 13 at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, 51 Stuart St. in Hamilton.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each year, Canadians spend an average 1,700 hours working. That\u2019s more than two whole months on the clock.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-184457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}