{"id":645485,"date":"2026-10-13T21:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/645485\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T21:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T21:14:15","slug":"50-years-on-from-arts-britain-ignores-how-much-has-changed-for-black-and-asian-artists-art-and-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/645485\/","title":{"rendered":"50 years on from Arts Britain Ignores: how much has changed for black and Asian artists? | Art and design"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is 50 years since cultural historian Naseem Khan\u2019s challenge to the British arts establishment was first published, and the question of who and what counts as British continues to be contested.<\/p>\n

The Arts Britain Ignores \u2013 Khan\u2019s groundbreaking 1976 report, commissioned by organisations including the then Arts Council of Great Britain, presented a vision of a pluralistic national culture, in which the creativity of Britons of diverse ethnic backgrounds \u2013 from bhangra music, to black painters and Ukrainian dance \u2013 should be recognised, supported and respected.<\/p>\n

Today, when polls,<\/a> debates and cultural and political moments present differing notions of British identity \u2013 whether it is the diversity of the England football team<\/a>, or how political figures choose to define their own identities<\/a> \u2013 Khan\u2019s work retains its relevance.<\/p>\n

Undated photo of Naseem Khan. Photograph: Frank Martin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Dawn Airey, the new chair of cultural funding and development agency Arts Council England<\/a>, will give her inaugural speech at a conference celebrating Khan\u2019s legacy \u2013 The Arts Britain Ignores: 50 Years On \u2013 at Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage in Leicester.<\/p>\n

Today, the work of black and Asian British visual artists, such as Frank Bowling, Sonia Boyce and Anish Kapoor is critically acclaimed and in demand. But in 1976, Khan documented how grassroot arts and cultural practices that thrived in UK ethnic minority communities were largely ignored by funders and critics.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s conference, bringing together artists, organisations, experts and policymakers, will explore how much progress has been made in 50 years and comes at a time when community and independent cultural spaces face pressures over finances, redevelopment and gentrification.<\/p>\n

Dancer and choreographer Tebandeke Joseph performing in TimeMachine at Let\u2019s Dance International Frontiers 2026. Photograph: Leesha Williams<\/p>\n

Contributors to Wednesday\u2019s conference include Khan\u2019s daughter, Amelia Torode, the theatre director Jatinder Verma, the broadcaster Brenda Emmanus and the crossbench peer and chancellor of the University of Nottingham, Lola Young.<\/p>\n

Cover of the new book The Arts Britain Ignores: 50 Years On. Photograph: Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage \/ The Unloved.<\/p>\n

The conference also marks the launch of a new book, The Arts Britain Ignores at 50, published by Serendipity Institute<\/a>, including essays and new research.<\/p>\n

Pawlet Brookes, the chief executive and artistic director of Serendipity Institute, said: \u201cWe had Cool Britannia, we\u2019ve had the \u2018ain\u2019t no black in the union jack\u2019. We\u2019ve had all of that narrative. But the reality is British is diverse \u2013 whether that diversity is layered with colour or layered in other ways. We can go down a negative road, or we can celebrate what we have, which is fantastic, the best in Europe \u2013 although we still have some way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor next to his installation Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto at the Hayward Gallery, London, in June. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Describing Khan\u2019s work as \u201cseminal\u201d, Brookes said it was time to \u201csee how far we\u2019ve travelled, and what we need to do for the next 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cWe did a timeline investigation [for the new book] and what it shows is that, there has been funding for culturally diverse organisations, but what there hasn\u2019t been is sustainability and growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also need recognition for dance and theatre, in the way that progress has been made in the visual arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The artist Frank Bowling at the launch of his exhibition Seeking the Sublime, at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, in March. Photograph: Joe Giddens\/PA<\/p>\n

In her speech, Airey is expected to say: \u201cThe journey Khan set us on remains one of the most important our sector is undertaking \u2026 [it] will sit at the centre of my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

She praises Khan as having told institutions such as the Arts Council that \u201cyou have built an entire cultural establishment \u2013 its funding structures, its buildings, its critics, its canon \u2013 around a definition of British art that leaves whole swathes of it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawn Airey, the new chair of Arts Council England, will be speaking at the conference. Photograph: Gary Calton\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Airey is also expected to say: \u201cIt a hard time to be an artist in this country, whatever your background \u2013 but for many people in this room it is harder still.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacism, Islamophobia and antisemitism are part of daily life for too many people in our sector: sometimes in crude and obvious ways, sometimes in subtle and deniable ones, but constantly there \u2026 So let me be emphatic. Those of us who don\u2019t experience this \u2013 and I include myself \u2013 have a responsibility to stand with you: to stand up for the work you want to make, and to back that with action, not just words.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is 50 years since cultural historian Naseem Khan\u2019s challenge to the British arts establishment was first published,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-645485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}