Jennifer Vanderpool’s Untold Stories Exhibition Opens at Wentworth Woodhouse
Almost half a century after the decline of South Yorkshire’s steel industry began to reshape the region, a new exhibition at Wentworth Woodhouse explores what the transformation has meant for the people and places who lived through it.
From Tuesday 27th January 2026, Wentworth Woodhouse will present Reframing Wentworth Woodhouse’s Untold Stories, an exhibition by American artist, Jennifer Vanderpool, that explores the legacy of deindustrialisation in Rotherham and Sheffield, focusing on the loss of heavy industry that once defined a region and its communities.
Vanderpool’s work forms part of her ongoing Untold Stories project, which explores the ways that history, labour, race, gender and class shape the lives of industrial and labouring communities. She crafts these stories together through imaginary realism compositions, curated archival materials, media and film which are curated into immersive, layered installations. The project began in her hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, once a major steelmaking centre, and has since expanded internationally.
In 2021, Vanderpool was awarded a Fulbright Artist Fellowship by the US-Fulbright Commission to explore the connections between the Industrial Midwest of the United States and the North of England. That research underpins this exhibition, alongside a complementary exhibition at the Harley Gallery in Nottinghamshire, which explores how the loss of coal mining impacted the area.
“We’re delighted to be hosting Jennifer Vanderpool’s work here at Wentworth Woodhouse. This exhibition has a deep focus on the history of our region and we’re particularly excited to be working with materials from our own archives to help tell these stories. It connects communities across the world with our own, highlighting the shared experience of loss and resilience.”
- Jennifer Booth, Exhibition & Interpretation Manager for Wentworth Woodhouse
Wentworth Woodhouse is one of the UK’s largest stately homes and as a site with its own complex ties to the industry, provides a resonant setting for the exhibition. Access to the exhibition is included in General Admission and can be pre-booked via the website or from Front of House on the day: https://wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk/whats-on/untold-stories-exhibition-jennifer-vanderpool/
- Jennifer Vanderpool: Reframing Wentworth Woodhouse’s Untold Stories Exhibition is on show at Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham, 27th January to 28th June
- The exhibition is free to enter with General Admission and there is a large, free visitor car park on-site
- Wentworth Woodhouse is open Tuesday to Sunday, please check https://wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk/ for opening times
- The House is a short journey from Junction 35 of the M1. For sat nav users, please use postcode S62 7TQ
Wentworth Woodhouse
Wentworth Woodhouse is one of the largest houses in Europe and was built between 1725 and 1750. The House was sold in March 2017 for £7million following a five-year campaign by SAVE and the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust.
Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust is now managing a major project to restore the House and is committed to raising significant sums to support its ambitious regeneration as well as community and educational programmes.
All money raised by the Trust directly contributes towards the site’s redevelopment and a number of targeted programmes at Wentworth Woodhouse, including, educational projects, community engagement activities, wellbeing programmes, art and cultural experiences.
The Trust is focused on reaching groups who are not presented with the same opportunities as others, including people with disabilities, low-income households, the socially and economically disadvantaged and ethnic groups.
More details about Wentworth Woodhouse are available at: www.wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk or by calling 01226 351161.
Follow Wentworth Woodhouse on social media:
https://www.facebook.com/WentworthWoodhouse
https://www.instagram.com/wentworth_woodhouse/?hl=en
https://x.com/Wentworth_House
Jennifer Vanderpool
A native of the Mahoning Valley in northeast Ohio, now working in Los Angeles, Jennifer Vanderpool is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and writer. Through her social art practice, she values questioning equity issues, investigating the working class, and working-class labour. Her practice emerged after she embraced her disinvested hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. Her Ukrainian immigrant family’s stories serve as a creative foundation to explore the lives of other manual, industrial, and agricultural labourers and their communities.
Vanderpool has exhibited solo shows at museums and galleries in the U.S., Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, and Vietnam.
Her practice received funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the British Academy Leverhulme Trust, the US-UK Fulbright Commission, the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, Ohio Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America Grant, National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant, Kunstrådet: Danish Arts Council, Kulturrådet: Swedish Arts Council, Malmö Stad, and Deindustrialization and the Politics of Our Time, a partnership with the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a Lecturer in the Art Department at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
