Artists of the Northern Counties

In 1905 the newly-established Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle, which had opened the previous year held the first of its annual Artists of the Northern Counties exhibitions. The original idea was to attract practising artists who were strongly associated with the four northern counties of England namely Northumberland, County Durham, Cumberland and Westmorland. However, the exhibitions soon became so popular that artists from around Britain and some from Scotland began to show their work. Among the artists and sculptors whose work was featured were James Edgar Mitchell, Victor Rainbird, Ralph Hedley, Robert Bertram, Arthur Hardwick Marsh, Thomas Ralph Spence and sculptor Doyle-Jones, all of whom had Arts and Crafts connections in varying degrees. The final exhibition under the Northern Counties 'banner' was held in 1962. Between 1905 and 1962, the Laing hosted forty-three exhibitions with nearly one million visitors over the years.