This online archive makes available in digital, scanned form a selection of work from The Cockpit Arts Workshop in the 1970s and 80s, which, along with Camerawork, developed the form and use of the laminated touring exhibition. They were nearly all produced as a direct response to cultural and political issues of the day, which were not represented in mainstream media and publishing. They can be said to have formed an alternative progressive media network, offering a view of society as seen from the perspective of shared communities and progressive groups.
The Department of Cultural Studies at Cockpit Arts Workshop created the exhibitions. They set up a public gallery, darkrooms and studio at the ILEA Drama and Tape Centre in Holborn between 1978 and 1990. The department’s focus was on young people and representation in the context of the emergence of media studies within secondary English education. The exhibitions were created using a highly collaborative approach with young people, teachers and community workers, resulting in laminated displays. In 1984, the department established a separate Gallery project, which allowed them to curate the Gallery programme, develop exhibitions with external groups and administer touring shows.
The exhibitions were typically produced on A1 panels containing text and photographs, protected and made durable by an inexpensive laminating process. Eyelets were riveted into the corners of the panels to allow them to be easily displayed. Exhibitions contained an average of 15-30 panels and were stored and transported in tough, black, cardboard ‘laundry’ boxes.
The exhibitions were toured to a wide range of national educational, political and cultural venues using what was then British Rail’s Red Star delivery service. The aim of this archive is essentially to make a digitised version of the original artefacts available to researchers and others interested in progressive cultural activity in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. The archive does not aim to interpret the material, and website text is kept to a minimum to provide factual information about who produced the exhibition.
Claire Grey and Andrew Dewdney 2023
Cockpit Gallery Exhibitions & Cultural Studies projects 1973-89 