The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle is opening a new exhibition titled 'With These Hands' from May 17 to September 27, exploring the representation of craft in paintings, drawings, and prints. The show features works produced in Britain and Europe from the 1750s onward, depicting hand-making and mending as domestic pastime, rural labor, semi-industrial work, and war effort. It includes paintings by artists such as Mary Cassatt, G.F. Watts, and Evelyn Dunbar, alongside objects like quilts, embroidery, metalwork, and ceramics from makers including Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew. Loans come from Tate, V&A, Royal Academy of Arts, Imperial War Museums, and regional collections.
The exhibition matters because it examines how craft has been depicted across centuries of social and industrial change, highlighting its evolving role in women's lives, community identity, and national narratives. At a time when handmade practices are experiencing a resurgence in the digital age, 'With These Hands' offers a timely reflection on the meanings and values attached to craft, from leisure and status to collective endeavor and wartime necessity.