Museum of Liverpool on the road
6 August 2007 to August 2009 (final date to be confirmed)
Zoom into the detail of this painting
While the new Museum of Liverpool is being built, we are touring some of its fantastic collections ‘on the road’. You can now see some extraordinary and iconic items on display at unexpected venues across the city. See further details on the Museum of Liverpool on the road homepage.
50-54 Mount Pleasant , Liverpool, L3 5SD
This painting is on display in the People's Centre.
Accession number MLL.2006.26
This painting depicts the effects of unemployment and the ways in which Liverpool people have actively campaigned for the right to work over time.
Hunger marches of the 1920s and the People’s Marches for Jobs in the 1980s are shown alongside the Merseyside Trade Union Community and Unemployment Resource Centre, and training and employment initiatives like the Technology Centre for Women at Blackburn House and the Eldonian Garden Market.
In the foreground you can see young unemployed people, one who is burning papers about job losses and the recession.
The artist Mike Jones describes how:
“...the boy is gazing into the future, the smoke going up behind him transforming into a woman training at Blackburn House, giving a sense of optimism, which is supported by the figures of two children marching forward out of the picture from the Give Us a Future Campaign”.
People’s Centres funded by contributions from employed workers through initiatives such as the One Fund for All (OFFA) continue to work to combat unemployment, poverty and social exclusion today.