Overview
The Artist Award for Excellence in Contribution to the Labour Movement, 2025 (Winner) The Art of Solidarity delves into the rich tapestry of labour arts and heritage in Canada—from protest music and union banners, to murals, community theatre, and oral histories, to workers’ history museums and arts festivals—showcasing how these expressions of working people’s culture have been essential to challenging inequality and fostering solidarity. This inspiring collection highlights the resilience and creativity of labour arts and heritage practitioners who, despite financial and organizational challenges, continue to amplify the voices and experiences of working-class communities. In an economy characterized by growing polarization, inequality, precarity, and uncertainty about the future and meaning of work, labour arts and heritage has a central role to play in providing answers that challenge the prevailing narratives about whose work matters and whose efforts are central to our communities’ wellbeing. This work is more important than ever before.
Full Product Details
Author: Rob Kristofferson ,
Stephanie Ross
Publisher: Between the Lines
Imprint: Between the Lines
ISBN: 9781771136792
ISBN 10: 1771136790
Pages: 220
Publication Date: 02 February 2026
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Availability: In Print
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.
Reviews
“A welcome addition to Canadian labour studies, The Art of Solidarity spotlights working-class cultural institutions that activists have built to sustain labour arts and heritage. Rooted in a refreshingly expansive view of working-class experience and the vital role of culture in labour movements, this inspiring collection gathers first-hand accounts from institution-builders, artists, and historians. Confronting the often-fraught cultural politics of labour, it powerfully affirms the necessity of public spaces that preserve and advance worker-centred visions of just and equitable futures.” – Greig de Peuter, associate professor, Department of Communication Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University “Labour history and culture were once passed on informally in the workplace and the union hall. But those vital links were broken as work, unions, and community were eroded by capital. The memory of resistance and visions for the future are now being rebuilt more consciously and formally. Part history lesson, part how-to manual, part hope for the future, this book will help us rebuild those links of solidarity.” – Mark Leier, professor, Department of History, Simon Fraser University; coauthor of Roles of Resistance: Game Plans for Teachers and Troublemakers “The Art of Solidarity is a landmark volume that documents the dynamic history and present of labour arts and heritage organizations in Canada. Kristofferson and Ross have brought together an impressive range of organizations, artists, and researchers to show that labour is not only the source of all creativity, but that creativity, in turn, nourishes the labour movement’s collective memory, tactics of resistance, and visions for a better future. This inspiring volume dignifies labour’s cultural history and imagines bold futures for movements rooted in economic and social justice—and in the labour, love, and joy of making art.” – Tanner Mirrlees, professor, Communication and Digital Media Studies, Ontario Tech University “All too often, art and heritage are cast as mere accessories to the pressing struggles to build a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable world. This inspiring collection provides ample testimony to the contrary, showing us how diverse practices of remembering, celebration, and creative expression are central to the ongoing work of solidarity, activism, and community building.” – Simon Orpana, author of Gasoline Dreams: Waking Up from Petroculture and coauthor of Showdown! Making Modern Unions “The culture of working people is often born through struggle to better their working conditions and advance their rights. From picket line songs to protest march placards, art allows workers to communicate with each other, to promote a key message, and to express their feelings in moments of conflict. The Art of Solidarity showcases historians, musicians, curators, and filmmakers who have dedicated themselves to presenting the workers’ side of the story in a volume that will inspire labour movement activists who want to follow in their footsteps.” – Peggy Nash, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives; coauthor of Women United: Stories of Women’s Struggles for Equality in the Canadian Auto Workers Union
Author Information
Rob Kristofferson is a professor of history and of social and environmental justice at Wilfrid Laurier University. He has worked extensively in workers’ public history and labour arts since the mid-1990s. He has produced several exhibits, tours, and other programming, much of this work in association with the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre, where he currently serves on the Board of Directors. He is co-author of the graphic history Showdown! Making Modern Unions. Stephanie Ross is an associate professor in the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University. Her teaching and research focus on the politics and dynamics of labour movements, especially how unions deal with key questions of structure, democracy, bargaining priorities, political vision, political strategy, and collective identity. She has long been interested in the role of culture in working-class communities and in labour movement renewal and is a past board member of the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre. She is co-author of Building a Better World: An Introduction to the Labour Movement in Canada.
