After years of speaking to audiences about art and art history, it's clear that many people seem to feel that art is something specialist – and possibly not for them. So often art is seen as a luxury, and luxuries are of course for the rich. But if you think about it, who really needs beauty the most? Isn’t it the people who have to struggle and do without and scrimp and save – in other words, most of us? Wouldn’t it be great if people felt that beauty and art were really made for the working class? There’s plenty of evidence that it isn’t – most collectors are rich, and most of the great art treasures of England are found in the rich country houses of England, owned by the great families of England. But you might be surprised to find out that there is also a long tradition of British artists and British art critics arguing that it shouldn’t be that way…especially in the north of England. This talk is about another side to art history – art for the working class.