A collage created by Julian Trevelyan in 1937 has been acquired by Bolton Library and Museum Service

‘The Observers are the cameras with which we are trying to photograph contemporary life’ We would like to invite photographers, writers and artists of all types to participate in a unique project inspired by Mass Observation.  The Worktown Observation Centre will be open in Bolton 26 July to 2 August, in an empty shop space […]

This painting was done by Walter Kershaw originally for the film “Stranger than Fiction” in around 1985. Kershaw is mural painter, from Rochdale, known for his large scale paintings. The painting is based on this photograph by Humphrey Spender, which we have been using in promotional material for the Worktown 75th Birthday exhibition at Bolton […]

Stand and Stare’s Mass-Observation Theatre Jukebox is currently on display at FutureEverything’s exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. The jukebox uses photographs from the Worktown Archive and text from the M-O Archive to play stories. Placing images on the jukebox desk activates a projection and audio through radio-frequency transmitter tags implanted […]

Artist Julian Trevelyan was part of the team of Mass-Observers in Bolton. Tom Harrisson, leader of the Worktown survey at the time, asked him and other artists to paint and draw in the streets of the town. Trevelyan was inspired by Surrealism at the time and used collage to record the street scenes in the […]