Wentworth Woodhouse
Rotherham
South Yorkshire, UK
January 27th 2026 – June 28th 2026
This exhibition was funded in part by a British Academy Leverhulme Trust Grant.
Wentworth Woodhouse stands on 87 acres of gardens and grounds. It has extensive views over former parkland, including a deer park and lakes, which are vested in the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust. The current Wentworth Woodhouse was built for the 1st Marquess of Rockingham from circa 1725, the work continuing over four decades, and then passed to the Fitzwilliam family. This grand Georgian house, with over 300 rooms, is now owned by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust whose sole purpose is regeneration of the site for the benefit of South Yorkshire.
Jennifer Vanderpool’s Reframing Wentworth Woodhouse’s Untold Stories is on exhibit in the former State Rooms, featuring gilded Baroque interior designs which once displayed the family’s collection of old master paintings including Van Dyck and Stubbs. Her exhibition features nine 100in x 60in compositions, hung from the Victorian picture rail within the ornate wall panel molding where the family’s collection once hung in the Van Dyck Gallery. Additionally, there are four light boxes with accompanying archival material displayed in the Grand Hall Gallery. Her interviews with community members are showing in the neighboring Ante Room.
Installation video of Reframing Wentworth Woodhouse’s Untold Stories in the Van Dyck Gallery
Jennifer’s exhibition Reframing Wentworth Woodhouse’s Untold Stories investigates the legacy of how the deindustrialization of Sheffield’s steel industry and South Yorkshire colliery closures impacted generational laborers and those who migrated from former British colonies and Eastern European EU countries to work in these heavy industries.
Jennifer develops stories about these working-class communities by combining her historical research with objects she’s found in the Wentworth Woodhouse and regional archives. In her exhibitions, these stories are told through imagery she creates that fuse old photographs and images into imaginary-realism compositions. This exhibition also features historical print media and interviews with community members. The interviews illuminate stories about struggling for dignity in the workplace, striving for racial and gender equity, and suffering the consequences of industrial closures, which result in precarious employment and eroded the fabric of personal and communal well-being.
The research and production of this exhibition was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant and faculty development funds from the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Sheffield.
Reframing Wentworth Woodhouse’s Untold Stories Interviews with Dr. Ryan Bramley, Ethel Maqeda, Pam Daniel, Rob Cotterell, and Asia Wala. Interviewed by Dr. Lizzy Craig-Atkins and Dr. Jennifer Vanderpool. March 2025
