Art for the People: contemporary reflections on the Usher Gallery’s archive

The Art for the People exhibition was curated and created by the University of Lincoln MA Fine Art students in response to their ‘Artist as Curator’ module. The exhibition was collection of new works that exhibited from 12 April 2025 until 29 June 2025. Before they artist began creating, they first examined the delicate pages of historical catalogues in order to identify shared themes and concerns from past exhibitions and programmes. The exhibition title takes inspiration from a 1940’s ‘Art for the People’ Special Exhibition at the Gallery which included works by Eric Newton and Jan Gordon. After viewing the nearly 100 years’ worth of exhibition catalogues held in the Gallery’s archives, artists Ollie Daniels, Stefan Fuga, Shannon Godfrey, Rebecca Leivers and Rebecca Morley produced a body of work encompassing performance, sculpture, textiles, and drawing, whilst exploring themes of nature, community, gender, and folklore.