WORK Records
Exploring historic working lives across the East Midlands
WORK Records is an innovative collaboration between contemporary art and heritage, exploring historic working lives at three ‘family’ firms in the East Midlands, through the collections at the John Smedley Archive, Corby Heritage Centre, and Derbyshire Record Office.
Three “investigative” teams of heritage curators, historians, artists, and volunteers, have researched working lives at knitwear factory John Smedley, packaging company Robinson and Sons in Chesterfield, and steel tube manufacturer Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd in Corby. Artists Kate Anderson, Kim Noce, and Saul Pankhurst are currently in production on three short animated films inspired by this research.
The WORK Records films will premiere, along with a film about the project by Christopher Bevan, at a special event at Derby Museum & Art Gallery, on the afternoon of Saturday, 12 September 2026. Artists Kate Anderson and Saul Pankhurst, composer Hutch Demouilpied, and Jane Middleton-Smith, John Smedley Archivist, will be in conversation with Derbyshire-based curator, educator and writer, Camilla Brown.
Follow this link for more information and to book.
The WORK Records films will premiere online in the autumn.
Between now and then, we'll be adding lots to explore on the website - via the Explore page. There'll be writing – by WORK Records Historian Stefan Ramsden, some of our volunteers, and interviews with former workers. We’ll have timeline will place the histories of the three firms and their workers in context, and a resources page for further exploration.
In the meantime, you can follow our posts on Instagram.
