Cultural Dessert

On Saturday we were at the Milton Keynes Theatre to see 'The Pitmen Painters' by Lee Hall. This is the inspiring story of a group of miners who started attending a WEA art appreciation class in Ashington, Northumberland in 1934, where their tutor decided the best way to help them understand art was to get them to try creating their own pictures. The Ashington Group - many of whom had left school at the age of 10 to start working in the mine - became nationally recognised and collected and were friends with some of the most famous artists of their day. When I met the new Chief Executive of Northumberland County Council recently he proudly pointed out an Ashington Group painting he had bought for the wall of his office. Lee Hall's play is wonderful - entertaining, thought-provoking, moving and extremely funny. The group's meetings in a YMCA hall, an old army hut, seemed reminiscent of 'Dad's Army' - with a similar cast of characters. Their pictures are projected across the back of the stage enabling us to follow their critical discussions in detail. The actors in this National Theatre/Live Theatre touring co-production are the original cast from the premiere at the Live Theatre, Newcastle, in September 2007. It's a great night in the theatre but it also carries a very important message. Writing in the programme Lee Hall points out "the idea that art is somehow a commodity, that culture is something one consumes rather than takes part in, is, of course, a very modern notion. The idea that an artist is someone who makes things to be bought and sold is part of this ideological shift and it is important to remind ourselves that art might indeed mean something more than this". I urge you to see 'The Pitmen Painters' if you get the chance.