Cornish lived his whole life in Spennymoor and most of his work depicts the people and places of his beloved home town along with colliery life, having spent 33 years as a miner.
Before his death in August 2014, aged 94, he requested that his sketchbooks ‘have a life of their own’, so some of the 269 sketches sit in his “studio” within the Bob Abley Art Gallery.
The Cornish Room boasts some of his largest, most famous and valuable paintings from the Town Council’s permanent collection, Northumbria University and Cornish family.
The Norman Cornish Room proudly celebrates his work and records and shares the area’s social heritage with all generations.
