Sue Woolhouse

Equal Arts is the Northern Region’s arts and older people’s agency, and a registered charity. They aim to improve the quality of people’s lives in the North East by enabling older people to have access to high quality arts projects. They employ artists to work within a variety of groups all over the region. They raised funding for this project.

The Teams and Bensham Community Care were interested in working with me on a project with a group. The sessions were run weekly for nine months during 2009. The theme chosen for the panel was Davidson Teams glass works that opened in 1868, the first pressed glass works in Britain, and glass remained an important industry in the area for the next 100 years.  It finally closed in 1987. Teams was the site of the Davidson Teams Glass.

Some of the women in the group as well as their husbands had actually worked in the factory. Catherine a valued member of the group brought a wonderful photograph in showing her mother and other workers outside the factory in September 1936. This became the centre of the panel. The chosen location for the completed panel was Teams Medical Practice, Watson Street, Gateshead where the panel can now be seen.