Penelope Payne + Haworth Art Gallery

In response to time spent at Haworth Art Gallery and in conversation with the team, volunteers and Youth Panel, Penelope Payne presents Canon, a new installation that uses the historic domestic setting as a lens to explore how personal stories, social structures and inherited values continue to shape one another over time.

Drawing on archival research alongside the oral histories of those connected to Haworth House, Payne explores the relationship between the Haworth family and the people who lived and worked within the house.

Central to the commission is a story shared by volunteers around the billiard room, a place that becomes a metaphor for the thresholds between privilege and labour, visibility and invisibility, and the movement between social classes. The installation articulates an oral history held by the custodians of Haworth that speaks to the family’s sense of inclusion and generosity.

Through sculpture and sound, Canon invites audiences to move through a layered environment where historical narratives and contemporary experience overlap. Reflective materials, architectural references and an immersive soundscape encourage visitors to consider not only what is remembered, but whose stories endure, and how the spaces we inherit continue to shape our understanding of community, belonging and social change.

The Artist

Penelope Payne’s artistic practice is rooted in the exploration of social history. She primarily explores female narratives, particularly overlooked and unrecorded histories. From her studio in Cullercoats, North Tyneside, Payne creates sculptural pieces, site-specific installations and performative moments that draw on archival research, material culture and collective memory. Works are often situated within non-gallery settings using the history of place to layer the work with significance. Her research-led practice combines archival investigation with contemporary voices and lived experience, revealing how histories continue to shape communities today.

Payne has been the curator of the North East Open Call, Middlesbrough Art Week, since 2023 and in 2026 will deliver a wrap-around programme to coincide with the Turner Prize exhibition taking place in Middlesbrough. Payne’s work has been presented as part of the National Gallery Lecture Programme; at MIMA; The Factory, Iceland; and Cheeseburn Sculpture Garden.

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The Manufacturer

Haworth Art Gallery in Accrington is itself a place of making, with deep connections to Lancashire’s industrial heritage. Originally built as Hollins Hill House for local cotton manufacturer, William Haworth, and his sister Anne Haworth, the Grade II listed Arts and Crafts building was gifted to the people of Accrington in 1920 and has been a centre for art and culture ever since.

Today, the gallery is internationally recognised for housing Europe’s largest public collection of Tiffany Glass, alongside a programme of contemporary exhibitions, events and artist development. Through its galleries, studios and creative community, Haworth continues to champion craftsmanship, creativity and the enduring relationship between art, industry and place.

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