AUDIO: Listen to live broadcast from opening of Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay by Lawren Harris
Iconic painting by Group of Seven artist exhibited at Eltuek Arts Centre in spring 2025
It’s been almost a year since Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay, the iconic painting by Group of Seven artist, Lawren Harris, made its way home to Cape Breton Island for the first time.
The 100-year-old painting was commissioned by the Toronto Star in 1925 as part of its coverage of the bitter coal miners’ strike — the same strike in which company police shot and killed coal miner William Davis. The tragedy is recognized every June 11 as William Davis Miners’ Memorial Day.
Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay captures an important moment in not only Cape Breton’s history, but in the national fight for workers’ rights, and has become a symbol of the hardships and resilience of mining communities on Cape Breton Island.
“For me, it has a very eerie, subtle feel to it, knowing the background and the history of it. It means so much not only to the coal mining industry, but to the labour movement and basically human rights,” said Kevin Edwards, a member of the Men of the Deeps coal miners’ choir and a former miner himself. He saw the painting for the first time at the opening event and said he was amazed.
The Men of the Deeps performed at the opening, singing mining songs from around the world and sharing stories and reflections from underground. The choir is made up of former miners and was established in 1966 to preserve in song some of the rich folklore of the Island’s coal mining communities.
The opening event was free and open to the public, giving the community the opportunity to view the famous painting and experience the rich history and culture of Cape Breton. Miners’ Houses, Glace Bay was on loan from the Art Gallery of Ontario from May 2 to June 28, 2025.
While the painting recalls an important historical moment, the exhibition marked a milestone for Eltuek Arts Centre, New Dawn’s artist-led hub for arts and culture that opened its doors in 2020.
“This is just the most remarkable moment for us — to be five years old here at Eltuek and to think we could have this impact with this painting, to bring it home and to bring everybody together to recall what happened a hundred years ago, where are we now and where are we going, it’s a gift,” Christie MacNeil, New Dawn’s Vice-President of Arts and Community, told CBC Radio’s Wendy Bergfeldt during the live broadcast of the opening event.
Listen to the full broadcast, featuring interviews with coal miners, scholars, community members and William Davis’ family, and featuring the music inspired by the era, capturing the significance of the painting to the Island’s community and culture today.
Listen here.
