Exhibitions and Displays

Temporary gallery

James Leonard, Industrial Artist

25 October 2025 - 31 January 2026

The Educational Supply Association was one of the town's biggest employers for over 100 years. After the Second World War they began to make a new range of modern, clean-lined school furniture fit for the future, using skills learnt in the manufacture of Mosquito aircraft wings. 

The idea started in 1944; to use scrap aluminium for school furniture. James Leonard designed it, and Johnny Appleton raised over £4m for it. The desk (X100) and chair (X200) first appeared in May 1947, the first two of six world-class designs: “The School Furniture of the Future”.

Jim Leonard’s designs are in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Vitra Museum in Germany, the Pompidou in Paris and the V&A in London. . . and now Stevenage Museum.