Ammunition Factory – Footscray. Employees’ Exhibition of Art, Myer Mural Hall, June 26th to July 10th, 1944

Melbourne L Footscray Ammunition Factory, 1944. Lettered wrappers, pp. [16], list of 195 works by men and women from various departments (Tool Room, Carpenters, Laboratory, Transport, Drawing Office etc.), together with a supplementary roneo printed list of works from the Footscray Ammunition Factory – Welfare Section, as well as a roneo printed circular encouraging further support for a national series of exhibitions.

A fascinating and rare example of a wartime art exhibition organised for the workers of a munitions factory, with strong social justice themes.

‘In the present struggle for freedom and democracy against the anti-cultural creed of fascism, it is significant that a desire for culture among working people should arise Art must not be the monopoly of the few, but part of the life of the whole people’.