Scunthorpe Steel – Exhibition at 2021 Visual Arts Centre

This summer, celebrate steel making in Scunthorpe with a major exhibition featuring new and archive films, photographs, artworks and objects celebrating and inspired by steelmaking in Scunthorpe at the 2021 Visual Arts Centre.

Bringing together previous photographic projects produced in partnership with the steel mill. Richard Heeps’ Rolled Out project is a visual record of the Bloom and Billet mill, photographed prior to its closure in 2007, and former Scunthorpe steelworker Ian Lee’s 88 and Out series documented the Plate Mill and its decommissioning.

These will be accompanied by a new series of photographs by Ian, documenting the Blast Furnaces and Continuous Casting mill.

Films on show include the cinematic film British Steel - The Movie, reclaimed previously unseen historical footage from the British Steel archive, and the documentary A Steelworkers Story, by artist Michael Burkitt.

Alongside the work by artists and photographers will be various objects and artefacts loaned from collections including the Appleby Frodingham Railway Preservation Society, North Lincolnshire Museum and from the personal collections of some of the participants.

Image: The Slab Handling Bay Crane Track. Copyright © Ian Lee 2018