Stories

Work in progress, on purpose

When the long-standing displays of industrial labour were replaced in 2023 by blank walls, question prompts and sticky notes, Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (WAHC) became a museum in mid-sentence, pausing for visitors to talk back.

The response was enthusiastic.

This is where Work in Progress — a long-term reimagining of how working people’s stories are told, and who gets to tell them — began. Ultimately, visitors will experience 30 contemporary snapshots of work and activism, rolled out in phases starting in fall 2025.

The name of the project is apt. “People’s understanding of labour is always evolving,” says executive director Tara Bursey. “We needed exhibits that could evolve too.”

Ten community curators — workers, activists, artists and organizers from Hamilton and beyond — will be key to shaping the stories.

Emily Power, a housing advocate, is contributing a snapshot of the tenant-led transformation of her own building into a housing co-op. “So much of working-class history is left out of textbooks,” she says. “These are stories of resistance, of wins worth remembering. They help people see what’s possible.”

Layla Staats is a Mohawk land defender, musician, filmmaker and educator. As a Work in Progress community curator, she will show the power of the bridges that are being built between unions and Indigenous resistance. “Change will come from the ground up — the people — not by some guy at the top passing laws,” she says.

Tara says HCF’s grant is critical to making the curators’ work possible. “Without it, we couldn’t facilitate the kind of authentic relationships and shared authorship we’re aiming for.”

She’s confident that Work in Progress will spark connection — between past and present, curators and visitors. In fact, it already has. In the words of one Indigenous student, on hearing stories of work that reflected their own experiences in an early installation: “I feel less alone.”

“It’s in these public spaces that people feel empowered to think of themselves as part of a collective,” Tara says. “We aren’t telling people what work means, we’re asking.”

Excerpt from 2024-25 annual report