A major new exhibition and series of events will commemorate the 50th anniversary of Naseem Khan’s groundbreaking report The Arts Britain Ignores, which challenged the exclusion of Black, Asian and immigrant communities from Britain’s cultural landscape.
Presented by Unfinished Histories and London Performance Studios, Radical Rediscovery III: What Survives? 50 Years Since The Arts Britain Ignores runs from 12 November to 12 December and forms part of the concluding year of Fifty Years of the Fight for Inclusion III: Black & Asian Theatre in Britain.
The exhibition brings together archival material spanning four decades, including photography by Sheila Burnett, filmed oral history interviews and historic carnival costumes. Drawn from the Unfinished Histories archive, the collection highlights the artists, companies and activists who shaped Black and Asian theatre in Britain despite limited institutional support.
The project celebrates the legacy of journalist, activist and cultural historian Naseem Khan, whose seminal 1976 report was the first major study to document grassroots arts and cultural practices within Black and Asian communities and other immigrant groups across the UK.
Alongside the exhibition, a two-day symposium taking place on 27 and 28 November will bring together artists, academics and cultural leaders to explore the continuing relevance of Khan’s work and examine questions of representation and cultural power.
Speakers include Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, arts leader Shreela Ghosh, and actor, playwright and director Sudha Bhuchar. Bhuchar will also direct a special event, The Woman, the Writer, the Legacy, celebrating Khan’s life and achievements through readings and performances.
The season concludes with staged readings on 11 and 12 December of three rarely seen one-person plays from the 1970s to the 1990s. The programme features Slipping Into Darkness by Jamal Ali, Madhuri, I Love You by Parminder Sekhon, and One of Us, written by Jacqui Shapiro from improvisations by BAFTA-winning actor Meera Syal.
Guest Curator Suman Bhuchar said: “It is an honour to be part of the Unfinished Histories FYFFI3 Programme as its values align completely with Bhuchar Boulevard’s Retracing Our Footsteps strand of work. I have huge admiration for the tenacity and passion of Susan Croft and her team and see her as a fellow traveller in what can be a lonely road to make archives visible and accessible to a wider community. The programme provides a unique opportunity to trace the rich history of British South Asian and Black Theatre performance work, the practitioners and the stories. As intergenerational global majority creatives, we continue to fight for representation, equality and decolonising the theatre space. It is also timely to remember the contribution and legacy of Naseem Khan, a cultural trailblazer on the fight for inclusion, through her seminal report, The Arts Britain Ignores; as well as her work as a journalist, consultant and arts administrator. I was lucky enough to be part of her ALAAP (Asian Leisure & Arts Planners) group – South Asian women from the creative industries who undertook consultancies and wrote reports on the creative sector. I am passionate to share my lived experience alongside my peers and open the doors to the collective knowledge and physical artefacts and memorabilia that we all have so that we can continue to co-create a cohesive and multi-layered history (albeit unfinished).”
Guest Curator Tyrone Huggins said: “It is important that we bring to the surface the range and depth of work created by Black and Asian artists and practitioners, in order for British culture to understand itself and how its changed and develop a new canon of works that tell us of our past and informs our journeys into the future. It is an important privilege and responsibility to me to work with Unfinished Histories in that enterprise.”
Lucy Cowling, Director (Maternity Cover) at London Performance Studios, said: “Unfinished Histories is doing vital work. This exhibition is a living, growing archive of Black and Asian British theatre, fifty years deep, but rooted in our current moment. Visitors won’t just witness this history; they are invited to become its custodians. It’s a moment to celebrate how far we’ve come, and to be honest about the work still to do. In the current political climate, an exhibition like this has never mattered more.”
Founded in 2006, Unfinished Histories preserves and celebrates alternative theatre in Britain, with a particular focus on documenting the contributions of communities and artists whose stories have often been overlooked in mainstream histories.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
