Doncaster gallery thrilled to welcome new miners strike art

Danum Gallery, Library and Museum has recently acquired an amazing new artwork by acclaimed photographer Hannah Starkey.

The large-scale photograph entitled ‘Cath: A Woman’s Place is on the Picket Line’, has been created to honour the role that women played both locally and nationally during the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85.

Central to the artwork is a portrait of Cath Whitehead, a resident of Denaby and an active participant in the Strike. Now in her mid-90s, Whitehead is remembered for her energy and

commitment during the period.

Surrounding this intimate portrait is a layered photomontage incorporating archival press imagery of women from the Miners’ Strike, with the overall effect evoking a shifting interplay between personal memory and collective history.

The artwork has been acquired through the Valeria Napoleone XX Contemporary Art Society award, an initiative supporting the acquisition of major works by women artists for UK

museum collections each year.

Hannah Starkey (b. Belfast, 1971) is an internationally recognised photographer based in London. Her work often explores the lived experiences of women and has been exhibited

widely, including major institutional commissions.

Her earlier series Principled and Revolutionary: Northern Ireland’s Peace Women (2023) for the Ulster Museum similarly celebrated women’s roles in shaping political and social change. Her work is held in the collections of Tate, Ulster Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is a London-based charity founded in 1910 to promote the acquisition and study of contemporary art in the UK. Since its foundation, it has

facilitated the donation of over 10,500 works of fine art and craft into public collections and currently has a  membership of 78 museums across the UK: from Plymouth in the South to Orkney in the north, and from Swansea in the West to Norwich in the East.

Over the years, the CAS has acquired work by many leading artists including Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, David Hockney, John Akomfrah,  Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Grayson Perry. 

Established in 2016, the VN XX CAS Award acts as a focal point for debate about and action against gender inequality in the arts. The scheme purchases and donates a significant work

by a living woman artist to a UK museum each year.