Exhibitions

At WAHC, we see museums as works-in-progress. Work with us to re-imagine how we represent the stories of working people! In 2019, we stripped our walls of 20-year-old exhibits representing labour history in Hamilton and beyond. These exhibits privileged an industrial workforce, and realities of work and life that look and feel so distant from […]

Labour banners demonstrate collective strength. Carried in parades, brandished at protests and hung in union halls, they convey messages of common purpose, pride, unity and the dignity of work.Located on the main floor of the museum, All Together Now! Banners from the Permanent Collection is an exhibition of a selection of historical banners from the […]

Off the Beaten Path Hamilton is a mapping database that collects personal stories and historical events of everyday Hamiltonians through the lens of labour and race.As an open living project, students from the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University create songs, poems, and other artistic media to tell past and ongoing suppressed stories of […]

2025 marks the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre’s 30th anniversary and the Mayworks Festival’s 40th! Both have provided a unique space for cross sectoral gathering and art making within a progressive framework of inclusion and social justice. Having a combined 20 years of involvement with both organizations, exhibition curator Florencia Berinstein says “I love them profoundly […]

Curated by Jojo Chooi-Harley, the exhibition In the Wake of Work: Asian Diasporas, Labour, and Living Memory featuring the work of Holly Chang, mihyun maria kim and VALU CO-OP, explores how the Asian diasporic experience bridges space, tradition, and culture across generations, revealing how diasporic people hold collective memory around the confluence of loss of […]