The colourful and emotion-charged Durham Miners Gala has inspired not only the huge crowds it attracts but also artists over the years.
Now a new exhibition at Bishop Auckland’s Mining Art Gallery celebrates the Gala as it returns on July 9 after being cancelled for the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Hosted by the Durham Miners Association since 1871, the Gala, which is attended by more than 200,000 people from across the region and beyond, will be dedicated to key workers.
Unity is Strength: Durham Miners’ Gala, brings together mining art from lenders across the North East with pieces from the Gallery’s Gemini Collection, including works by artists such as Tom McGuinness, Norman Cornish and David Venables. The Gemini Collection, featuring 420 works by mining artists, has a permanent home at The Mining Gallery, which opened in 2017 to preserve an artistic record of an industry and a memorial to a former way of life.
