“50 Years After Arts Britain Ignores: Legacy of Naseem Khan’s Report on Black and Asian Art” — what this page in the network covers. It has been 50 years since cultural historian Naseem Khan’s seminal 1976 report, Arts Britain Ignores, challenged the British arts establishment to recognize and support the creativity of Black and Asian artists. Commissioned by the Arts Council of Great Britain and other bodies, the report highlighted the exclusion of minority ethnic artists from mainstream institutions and called for a pluralistic national culture that embraced bhangra music, Black painters, Ukrainian dance, and more.
Now, a conference is exploring the report’s legacy, asking how much has changed for Black and Asian artists in the UK. The question of who and what counts as British remains contested, as arts funding, representation, and institutional support continue to be debated. The full version stays on the original page, which this listing opens directly.