Guilt, industry, brutality, art - the reinvigorated Whitechapel Art Gallery in London's East End.
Hugh Pearman
The English middle classes have always loved the idea of throwing high culture at the masses. From the mid 19th century onwards, all kinds of energetic social reformers and philanthropists have made earnest attempts to prise theatre, opera, ballet, art, museum collections and intellectual discourse out of their elitist strongholds and set them up in working-class premises. In London, none has succeeded better than the Whitechapel Art Gallery at the heart of the East End. Now it has just reopened after an £13.5m expansion. As tendrils of gentrification coil through the area, is its mission still relevant?
http://www.hughpearman.com/2009/08.html
