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Where are the black visitors in my gallery?

The National Gallery is not just for the white middle class, it is for people of all races. The trick is to
entice them inside
Jonah Albert

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The Observer, Sunday 7 January 2007

Jump to comments (103)

Last week, I played a game that I sometimes find amusing. You can play it,
too. Have a wander around any major British art institution and play 'spot the
black face'. There's just one rule. The gallery assistants - the security staff don't count.

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At the National Gallery, where I am a curatorial fellow, the only tinted visages I spotted after 15 minutes
belonged to a couple of verbose Americans. I didn't see any Brits; it seems that getting British black
people to check out art is an uphill struggle.
The Inspire scheme, which I am part of, was initiated by the Arts Council two years ago in an attempt to
get more black and Asian people into curatorial positions in London and help rectify the imbalance. Let's
face it; there are very few from black or ethnic minority backgrounds - they account for less than 5 per
cent of full-time curatorial staff.
Still, now Inspire has begun its attempts to sort out staffing levels, what's up with the attendances? Figures
show that 43 per cent of the British population visited a gallery or museum last year, but I know from just
working in a gallery that the percentage of those from ethnic minorities was in single figures.

An obvious culprit hides in the nature of the National Gallery's collection: Western European painting
from 1200 to the turn of 19th century was the remit it was given when it was established in the early 19th
century. Other institutions would collect and display Eastern and African Art; the National Gallery was set
up to focus on old master paintings.
To the minds of those who choose not to engage with the place, it's little more than the work of some dead
men - well, mainly dead white men.
The argument often put forward is that people like to see themselves in art. They want to see stories and
faces they can relate to. And there are plenty of images of black people in the National Gallery, if you
happen to be a Wise Man from the East (as in dozens of Nativity scenes), or a liveried servant (pouring
wine for white masters across all sorts of canvases).
What fascinates me, though, is getting behind these stereotypes and looking for the real story. Unpeeling
the onion exposes a far from tokenistic black presence which started way before Windrush. A look at the
social, political and historical context in which the old masters constructed their works reveals a bigger
picture, a Europe that wasn't at all isolated from Africa.
A good example of a picture with history is Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando by Degas . La La had an
unusual talent; she could support a cannon from her teeth while hanging upside down on a trapeze and
having the gun fired. (This is a stunt that should not be attempted at home.) The fantastically athletic
portrait depicts La La dangling from the roof of the circus by her teeth. Here you have a painting by a
French man of a black woman called Olga Kaira born in 1858 in Stettin, Germany, performing her
amazing act.
You don't need a black face in a painting for it to hold stories relevant to black people. The paintings in the
National Gallery deal with major life themes: love, loss, death, jealousy, betrayal, war, peace, power and
many more ideas, all of which are just as relevant to black people as anyone else. But it's also significant
that behind many of the portraits of white folk in their finery lurks the ghostly presence of an invisible
black population.
Zoffany's painting of Mrs Oswald shows a lemon-lipped, bored-looking woman trussed in a furbelowed
dress. Joshua Reynolds's image of Banastre Tarleton depicts a handsome, if somewhat camp and bouffant,
soldier in full military dress. The buried story behind both Persil-white portraits tells of African
enslavement, Caribbean plantations, slave factories on the West African coast, abolition and slave revolts
in Florida. More history than you'd imagine on first glance.
Mrs Oswald and Colonel Tarleton led fabulous lives off the profits of slavery. It was those links with the
slave trade that helped fuel both art collecting and the obsession with building grand country houses in the
18th century. If that history is not enough to entice minorities into our museums, there are all the other
issues which affect attendance - class, education, the immigrant mentality, employment status.
It remains to be seen whether my take on the National Gallery's history and collection will persuade more
black people to visit the gallery. Perhaps the biggest challenge is letting people know that these days, the
National Gallery is not just run for white, middle-class people and tourists. We all know that history
should be inclusive and not just the story of the usual suspects: royalty, the church, government, war. It
should cover a diverse range of voices and positions. What's more, these stories surround us. There is a
fuller, more rounded history to be found in places such as the National Gallery and we don't have to dig
that deep to find it.
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eleutheria
07 January 2007 2:26am

You also have a policy of not allowing photography, so I rarely go in, instead joining
the hundreds of people of all races in Trafalgar Square with their cameras. Maybe a
sign saying FREE KULCHER rather than VELASQUEZ would get them in?
I go into galleries because I like art. Most art is irrelevant to me in the sense that it's
often beautiful or aristocratic or heroic or mythological or religious, and I'm not really
any of those things. So I don't think it speaks to my culture any more than it does to
someone of a different race/ethnicity than me (which you say when you talk about
love, loss and jealousy). And the artists might all be dead white men, but it doesn't
seem to put off women from going.
Have you actually probed non-white people as to *why* they don't go in? If, for
instance, they think art is 'white,' why do they think that? If they think art is boring,
what made them think that (schools, parents, peers, personal decision)? Do they
prefer other museums? Or parks and gardens? Is it more demographic than racial
(social class, education, family commitments)? And so on. Just suggestions. I don't
know what's behind it, but I get interested when we carve people up into different

Next

know what's behind it, but I get interested when we carve people up into different
groups and observe that they don't all do the same thing.
Still, I thought you had an interesting take on selling the gallery to people, and good
luck with it.

eleutheria
07 January 2007 2:32am

Oh, and maybe using words like "furbelowed" is part of the problem...
;-)

ThatBernardGirl
07 January 2007 2:37am

I agree; I am usually the only one. Most black people I know have no allegiances to
this country whatsoever, so the term 'National' is at once off putting. Then there is the
shame/embarrassment/annoyance of, as you mention, the only black faces being
that of a wise man, a servant or a small child at the bottom of the frame. There is the
subtle feeling one is being mocked when a chimney sweep is ambiguously painted
black.
I try to tell people that they must look at it objectively - and use what they see, the
same way Picasso and others did with African art. Once you look at the National and
other places as historical artefacts - the messages of which can be dissected and
analysed - rather than present truth, the images become less intimidating and even
funny; my personal favourite is Carlo Crivelli who has gherkins in almost every
picture. Now what is that about?

freenation
07 January 2007 2:44am

What is it with the metropolitan chattering class that makes them so obsessed with
peoples skin colour, particularly the darker hues? Another amusing game
might be to go to a mosque in, say, Somalia and play spot the white face.
Wouldnt that be a lark?
I know from just working in a gallery that the percentage of those from ethnic
minorities was in single figures. Is that so surprising when the percentage of the
British population from ethnic minorities was also in single figures? And thats
before we even touch on the class issue.
It remains to be seen whether my take on the National Gallery's history and
collection will persuade more black people to visit the gallery. I have a suggestion.
How about putting quotas on white people allowed into the Gallery? Or a no white
groups policy where any group or family of three or more whites would have to
bring along someone from an ethnic minority?

eleutheria
07 January 2007 2:47am

Maybe another way to look at it is that there are too many white people going to the
National Gallery. Perhaps a large number are there because they think it's civilised,
nice, cultured etc. You might find that a lot of them are only there because they're
middle class idiots who are trying to impress their friends... or don't know how to
have fun. People name drop Tate Modern all the time, after all. I still haven't been,
largely because I think it will be full of poseurs.

largely because I think it will be full of poseurs.

Maybe the proportion of art-*lovers* across different ethnic groups is more in synch?

rathi
07 January 2007 3:09am

May be black and brown people find it too painful to look at paintings and antiques in
the British museums and gallaries that have been systematically looted for over 500
years from their home countries!

Bix2bop
07 January 2007 3:10am

Wouldn't an exhibit of black artists, say from the Harlem Renaissance, draw a black
audience? Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Beauford Delaney,
Augusta Savage, et al, and a booklet explaining their connection to novelists like
James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, the civil rights leaders of the 1920s, the inspiration
of the blues, jazz music and dance of that era?

TDSFBR
07 January 2007 3:19am

I think it greatly depends on the type of museum or gallery. I was in the Natural
History Museum today and there were hundreds of black people in there. And Asian
people too, for that matter. But I have no doubt that a large number of people who
visit art galleries do so with one eye on impressing their dinner-party guests that
evening. Such individuals are surely more likely to be middle-class, middle-aged and
white.

iamprof40
07 January 2007 4:00am

Maybe black people are not interested in white art. As a white person I am not
interested in black art. WHY DO WE NEED TO BE SO DAMNED POLITICALLY
COERRECT ALL THE TIME ANYWAY, CAN WE JUST NOT BE TRUTHFUL FOR
ONCE? I am not interested in African art, ok?

RameshN
07 January 2007 4:34am

It's probably true that with respect to 'high' art, it will always be a middle class pursuit.
One needs to be exposed to it, preferably when young, and one probably needs to
be slightly deluded into the notion that great art is morally improving.
Whenever I'm in London I go to the V&A and the National, when in New York, the
Metropolitan. There are few black faces at the Metropolitan with the exception of
security guards. There are quite a few Orientals who visit, primarily the Asian and
impressionist galleries.
As a general rule, the art which requires the most knowledge of classical history are
the most white in attendance ; classical and medieval art, Old Masters. This applies
to the UK and the USA. When the National had its Titian exhibition I attended five
times, and saw probably less than ten nonwhites. Sociologically, the most interesting
exhibit was the V&A's one entitled, 'the adventures of Hamza'. I knew in advance that
this would show the finest set of Mughal miniatures extant, but even though I

this would show the finest set of Mughal miniatures extant, but even though I
attended six times, it was virtually deserted. There were virtually no Indians or
Middle-Easterners in attendance. However, on two occasions, a party of junior
schoolkids enetered with their teachers, as these kids reflected multicultural London.
What I do find surprising is the lack of interest of Muslim patrons in their fine art. I
also visit the Percival David collection of Chinese porcelain when I've visited London,
and even though only fanatics know about this place, the Asians outnumber the
whites when I've visited. By contrast, in the Islamic sections of the V&A, there seem
to be a paucity of Middle-Easterners whenever I've visited if one exludes the
showcase ground floor gallery with the Ardebil and Chelsea carpets. I've never seen
any Middle-Easterners when I've looked around the Islamic glassware sections in the
upper floors.
The Metropolitan in New York makes great cultural pushes for its blockbusters. For
instance, they targeted all the Oriental communities when the National Palace
exhibition was held, and they targeted the Armenian, Russian and Greek
communities for the 'glory of Byzantium'. It does seem that Japanese tourists, albeit
mainly the middle-aged and elderly, do take the moral purposes of art theory
seriously, for they do seem to venture into the non-Asian sections far more.

Quisling
07 January 2007 5:02am

Maybe we could insist that the works should represent the current make-up of the UK
population? So only about 2 or 3% should be by people with obviously French or
Italian names. The rest can be burned in an ecologically sound way. Jewish art
should be about 1%. 10% should be Scottish, so we can have stags, mountains and
glens in large numbers. There should be a lot more Moslem-related art and cartoons.
And of course, we should drastically upgrade the number of Polish artworks so that
plumbers can feel comfortable too. If there aren't enough black artists, maybe
paintings that use a lot of black paint would be an acceptable compromise?
I've got a very good collection of Rumanian and Bulgarian art if the National Gallery
is interested and wants to get ahead of the wave.
I very rarely attend classical concerts. I'd probably say it is because I am too
uninterested / lazy / have other interests and thus have never bothered to learn about
classical music properly. In other words, it's my fault. Am I being too honest? Should I
blame someone else?

mandrade
07 January 2007 5:09am

"I didn't see any Brits; it seems that getting British black people to check out art is an
uphill struggle"
What do you mean? Any Brits or Black people, or both? Disgrace!!!
This is the state of PC in this country! When are we stopping being exclusive and
start to be inclusive? All of this PC stuff is so racist in itself! Stop telling us that the
colour of skin is a difference or a minus, is not!!!
Just put whatever art you want, being Medieval, Modern, do not class it Black or/and
White, European or/and African. Let people choose what they want to see based on
the art do not make it part of a race but a culture, perhaps.

Reinheitsgebot
07 January 2007 6:04am

It sounds like there is clearly institutionalised racism going on down there at the

National. (Hmm National - sounds a bit like racist doesn't it?). Anyway, it is a disgrace
and must be stopped/outed/banned/shamed etc. Or burn it down. It was probably
paid for with slave trade money anyway. Get Lee Jasper on the case. He is always
good for a balanced considered opinion.

D6jevind
07 January 2007 6:09am

ThatBernardGirl: "I agree; I am usually the only one. Most black people I know have
no allegiances to this country whatsoever, so the term 'National' is at once off
putting."
If that is how you and your friends feel, then you should move to some country you
feel an allegiance to.

Jochebed
07 January 2007 6:11am

What a racist comment, Miltiades.

Every time I go to Central London galleries and museums I am taken aback that the
attendants are black or brown (mostly) and the visitors are white (mostly). This is
even the case with art from other continents, no matter how exquisite.
But in order for art to be more than a bolt-on extra in people's minds (people of every
shade and hue), first of all there has to be leisure so that you have time to take it all
in and maybe come back a few times, and second, you have to be trained up early,
not only for visual arts but for music too, and to be offered choices which one you like
the most, and be trained in that.
Curricula everywhere, not just in this country, are getting increasingly utilitarian "so
that we can compete in the world market", as if we and our children had no aesthetic
interests and needs. That's self-defeating.
When you haven't the money or the health or the language skills or whatever, to go
to places like China and India (or even Turkey) or to South America, places crammed
full with the art of the people who live there, museums and galleries are a very
enjoyable second best. Only everybody has to be told. And to take a picknick so they
can have meal/drink breaks outside, especially with children. It's possible, it's fun,
and, like music, the whole gamut of art is for everybody.

mayday1
07 January 2007 6:31am

Maybe the National Gallery as well as other museums should present more exhibits
that people of colour can relate to. While on several trips to London and visits to the
NG I have always enjoyed the vast European exhibitions but the only time there is a
black face in the works of art they are portrayed as servants. There are several great
artists our there from all over the African diaspora so I cannot see a reason why
more works from Africa and black North and South America is not featured. In order
to have this audience you must present them with something that relates to them.
The V&A has done it so why can't the National Gallery. Feature more African art and
then you will see more black visitors!

RameshN
07 January 2007 7:00am

A very good counterpoint would be Western classical music. Whereas it is true that

A very good counterpoint would be Western classical music. Whereas it is true that
negative stereotypes do abound in the visual arts and literature for nonwhites, this is
nugatory for non-operatic classical music.
Most orchestras in Europe and America with the exception of the VPO have a large
contingent of East Asians. Approx 50% of all students in the elite North American
music conservatories for classical music are Oriental, either locally or foreign born.
The youngest demographic for classical music concerts is in East Asia.
The reason I mention this is that it takes many years to learn Western classical
music. East Asians in the middle class have the attitude that Jews did in Europe and
America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries-- that education was important in
and of itself, that perseverence was perhaps more important than talent. There are
quasi-racist notions that blacks are better at 'rhythm', yet no one states that Jews and
East Asians are better at symphonic thinking! Similarly, it takes a long period of
cultural immersion to appreciate the nuances of the Old Masters. I never saw a
Vermeer face-to-face until I saw the duo in the National in my mid-twenties. However,
my Asian parents encouraged me to read, and I bought my first book on Vermeer at
the age of ten. I knew his oeuvre well enough when I did see his paintings 'live',
despite being completely self-taught about Western art.

DeathByCatfish
07 January 2007 7:01am

[What is it with the metropolitan chattering class that makes them so obsessed with
peoples skin colour, particularly the darker hues? Another amusing game
might be to go to a mosque in, say, Somalia and play spot the white face.
Wouldnt that be a lark?]
Haha! Quoted for truth.
What I wonder about is why it is that, even though they never shut up about
'embracing diversity', Leftists are so uncomfortable with actual difference? So what if
black people don't want to go to the National Gallery! Why not just let them get on
with it without getting your panties all twisted up?

mandrade
07 January 2007 7:08am

How about if we all paint ourselves with green for one day? It would be an interesting
experience! Perhaps then we would start to talk about our own interests instead of
putting blame on colour or history ... huum maybe with one offset; people that are
colour blind to green will be in big trouble ! :) Sorry for being 'racist' against colour
blind people to green.

kazbe
07 January 2007 7:15am

The problem isn't just one of race or ethnicity; it's also one of class. It's a shame that
anyone should miss the free pleasures of the National Gallery. People are usually
nervous about how to act and behave when moving outside their usual social or
cultural grouping. (This works both ways - few middle class people would feel
comfortable attending an event run by and for "chavs".)
In other countries, I see school groups of rather small children visiting major
museums and galleries - it's good to take them behind the imposing facade and
show that art galleries have no problems with their presence.
Incidentally, the attendants and shop assistants at the National Gallery, who aren't all
white and middle class, are usually knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the

white and middle class, are usually knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the
collections. They are usually free of the intimindating jargon of the art expert. Why
not ask their advice?

wotson
07 January 2007 7:23am

what about making them learn the cello,harpsichord and bagpipes as well and learn
latin and greek?

YTSL
07 January 2007 7:24am

For the record: My favourite painting in the National Gallery is J. M. W. Turner's "The
Fighting Temeraire". And yes, I find much to appreciate about it despite not being
white, male or -- for that matter -- British.
At the same time though, one can't help but realize and acknowledge that museumgoing (and this especially with regards to art museum-going) tends to be a white,
Western and socially elitist activity. And should anyone need any academic
confirmation of this, check out Pierre Bourdieu and Alain Darbel's "The Love of Art:
European Art Museums and Their Public" (Stanford University Press, 1990).
Additionally, in response to freenation's response to Jonah Albert's I know from just
working in a gallery that the percentage of those from ethnic minorities was in single
figures: i.e., "Is that so surprising when the percentage of the British population
from ethnic minorities was also in single figures?"
Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't London, where the National Gallery is located,
possess a population where the percentage of ethnic minorities is higher than just
single figures?
http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.com

cleopatre
07 January 2007 8:24am

Congratulations to Jonah Albert on an excellent article.

As a former museum curator, I am fascinated by readers' strong reactions. This
debate is not new to the museum world, but has been going on at least since the
1980's, when Margaret Thatcher forced museums to become more accountable with
the public money they are spending.
For me, this is the key issue. As tax-payers we all pay for our museums as a public
service, and we therefore all have a right to enjoy them. Unfortunately, simply
unlocking the door in the morning is not enough. It is the role of curators to try to
make museums as accessible (physically and intellectually) to the widest number of
users possible.
Efforts need to be made to encourage people to visit - and, as with any kind of
marketing, you need to offer a relevant product to a targeted group of people. Of
course the National Gallery cannot change history and invent a black Sir Joshua
Reynolds, or an Asian Gainsborough, but it can ensure that exhibitions of
contemporary work reflect the Nation's current racial make-up.
As another reader quite rightly points out, the other key to success in encouraging
the maximum number of people to benefit from the taxes they are paying, is to have
an extremely active schools programme (which the NG has). Studies, and common
sense, show that museum-visiting is a taste and a skill that is acquired in childhood.
It is important that school children of every ethnic background have positive museum

It is important that school children of every ethnic background have positive museum
experiences if they are to continue visit as adults.
It is worth remembering that museums, like any public service, have difficult choices
to make. Like the NHS and the herceptin breast cancer debate, for example, : how
best to invest public money ? how to share out the services most fairly to the widest
number of people ? do certain users require or deserve special attention?
I, for one, am happy to see that the NG is reflecting on how it can widen its audience
base and ensure that as many tax payers as possible get the best value for money
possible from their museum.

Jochebed
07 January 2007 8:35am

Wotson, if you knew how much I longed to learn an instrument "properly", at a music
school, and I would have liked to have been able to learn the harpsichord and other
early-modern European instruments, AND an Asian one as well. They're eyeopeners and ear-openers.

mites
07 January 2007 8:58am

I shared a moment with a handsome black security guard on one visit- he was
looking at my Indian face intently, perhaps wondering what I was getting from it all?

jammerlappie
07 January 2007 9:15am

As a 'tinted' non-Brit these kind of articles astonish me. Most of the posters have
made the obvious comments about number of black people in the UK and the whole
class issue. I find it very difficult to get annoyed about lack of black representation in
the National Gallery - its remit is old western art. We ain't going to be in it much. I'd
prefer to go to the Natural History museum anyway, my preference. Why are you
whiteys so obsessed with race? ;)

RameshN
07 January 2007 9:24am

Cleopatre, you are quite correct about instilling museum going in childhood. That is
where I gained my interest in art and archaeology.
School visits are necessary, but not a sufficient condition in itself. Case in point : with
regards to classical music, Simon Rattle the conductor has expended much effort
into school outreach when he headed the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
and now the mighty Berlin Philharmonic. I believe when studies were done to find out
how effective this was, there was an increased enthusiasm for learning a musical
instrument from those exposed to his orchestral outreach. Interestingly, I believe
there has been no statistically significant increase in the number of blacks or South
Asians attending CBSO performances, or of Turks attending Berlin Philharmonic
concerts, despite his efforts. So, the process is difficult.
In the National, without fail when people see the Leonardo cartoon behind its
protective screening, their voices drop, they become hushed and reverential. It's
treated like a holy relic. There are some artworks, such as this Leonardo, late
Turners, Van Goghs, the Rockebye Venus, the Titian Death of Acteon, which exert
an almost unanimous communicative power. But almost no casual visitor has the
same reaction to the National's two Vermeers, the Poussins, the Veroneses. Hence,

same reaction to the National's two Vermeers, the Poussins, the Veroneses. Hence,
it's probably best to market the 'stars', and leave the rest.
Right now, the National Palace Museum in Taiwan is holding its post-refurbishment
exhibition. The National Palace has the old Imperial art collection. They have the
same problem of attracting young Taiwanese. Their solution? The rarest Chinese
porcelain is Ru ware-- less than 100 extant until the kilns were discovered 20 years
ago. [ London has the best collection of Ru ware after Taiwan and Beijing ]. The
museum got a fashion designer to place the Ru ware, for this extravaganza, on a
catwalk, mimicking a fashion show! Lots of youngsters agog. Their second innovation
was iconoclastic also. The old museum tea room was built to resemble the interior of
one of the halls in the Forbidden City. The museum decided to gut this depiction, and
turn it into a trendy tearoom in Taiwanese chic.
Gossip is that the stately old tearoom was sacrificed so that the core of Chinese
Imperial art, the great landscape paintings, were displayed as before, albeit with
better trilingual captions. No one gives a stuff that the trendy young Taiwanese are
not being pandered to regarding the great paintings of the Northern and Southern
Sung dynasties. But as some procelain has more universal appeal, that has been
made the target of outreach. And the new tearoom is very popular.

GeorgesduB
07 January 2007 9:31am

Went to Twickenham a month or two ago. International match. 80,000 spectators.

OK, so I wasn't particularly looking, but have no memory of non-white faces. Five
percent would have produced 4,000 people I didn't see. How about football where
75% of the players seem to be black? Where are the black hooligans? Could it be
that whatever the event, non-whites prefer their own company?

chrish
07 January 2007 9:37am

When I went to Iran they seemed very keen on showing off old carpets in their
galleries/museums, however I didn't find them very interesting. May be we should
just put interest or lack of it down to cultural differences. I don't see it as a problem,
there are plenty of other attractions Africans or Asians can go to.

gerardmulholland
07 January 2007 10:07am

I can't believe that there are ignorami who think that peoples' taste -and skills- in art
is decided by the colour of their skin.
I think the National gallery should hold a major exhibition of work by American and
British black artists - who have been painting in the UK and in the US since the
eighteenth century.
Or is the NG so full of ignorant racists (as is this correspondence) that they don't
even know about them?
An artist is an artist. Their colour, religion, politics or physical handicap don't matter a
damn.

jaycee2
07 January 2007 10:38am

I don`t really think it is fair to put an exclusively 'Black' perspective on this-there are

I don`t really think it is fair to put an exclusively 'Black' perspective on this-there are
other 'minority' groups you could consider marginilalised-ie.other ethnic minorities,
other faiths, gay people,teenagers,Deaf people,people who visit art galleries etc etc
etc. So why should your focus be placed only on Black people who do not attend? A
simplistic answer to your question could be that people -from all races /cultures /
sections of society, are just not interested in attending these places. You are
competing with so many other things that people can choose to spend their time
doing,perhaps that is why.

TeflonBliar
07 January 2007 10:43am

Perhaps the problem is that we're no longer a nation. Our economy is run by and on
behalf of foreigners. Why should our old-fashioned national institutions attract
foreigners?

TimFootman
07 January 2007 11:05am

Since there seems to be a consensus that this is a class issue, rather than a race
issue, wouldn't it be more useful to place this article in the Sun or the Mirror (readers
of which might need encouragement to go to galleries), rather than the Guardian
(readers of which probably go anyway)?

kemi01
07 January 2007 11:08am

I have to confess that I have not been to the National Gallery. Why? Because I'm not
aware of it having exhibitions that reflect my background - I am from an
African/Caribbean background. The UK is culturally diverse in terms of people but
this is rarely reflected in the arts generally on show.
African art is my interest and my love. I appreciate and enjoy art from other cultures
but the initial pull would be African art. I find this country limiting for Black people in
terms of cultural interests. My family and I don't always want to go to a community
centre to find activities that reflect who we are as people.
In April 2006 my family and I took a trip to San Francisco primarily to visit the
Museum of the African Diaspora. Whilst we were there we also visited the De Young
Museum, The Museum of Modern Art and The Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts.
What the majority of these Museums and Art Galleries had in common is that they
had exhibitions or displays of art from the African Diaspora - reflecting who we are as
people. We have also visited a number of African art exhibitions in the UK. However,
these are far and few between and you don't aways hear about them.
One way we have got round our love of African art and our insatiable desire to see
more of these objects, is to surround ourselves with these arts in our home. That way
we are not waiting on others to welcome us in.

curious1
07 January 2007 11:08am

"Where are the black visitors in my gallery?"

Mr Albert the National gallery isn't yours - you just work there. And not very well it
would seem if you waste your time playing petty(racist?)little games like "let's find the
black face".
Maybe using your mind and skills to remedy the situation would be time better spent

Maybe using your mind and skills to remedy the situation would be time better spent
and a better use of your salary.
Blacks on average come from working class backgrounds, so I think if you can get
beyond the colour you'll find that whites from the same socio-economic background
will have similar visiting figures at the National.
Maybe we should be looking at the divisions in society as a whole where Britain has
a divisive and destructive "claste" system of snobbery(and yobbery?) and socially
branding people depending on which clothes they wear or the moment they open
their mouths which is not conducive to creating a positive inclusive "live and let live"
atmosphere.
I go to the National Gallery a lot and I have often played a game that I sometimes
find amusing. You can play it, too. Have a wander around any major British art
institution and play 'spot the nice and friendly unpretentious person '.
There's just one rule. The gallery assistants - the security staff - and tourists don't
count.

amities
07 January 2007 11:34am

I don't know but I don't set great store by the observation that blacks don't go to
museums because they are not portrayed (except as servants and so forth) in the
art. It seems a superficial conclusion.
I am Hispanic (from America) and I enjoy going to museums. I especially enjoyed the
Byzantine collection at the MET in NYC. It had nothing to do with my 'race'. I have a
penchant for Byzantine art even though I'm an atheist and anticlerical.
It has to do more with class. If your parents never took you to a museum as a child,
why should you go? My parents never did, why should they, after all they have never
set foot in one and never will. I was introduced to my first museum by a friend who
thought I'd be interested by a certain collection and I was.
Going to museums is ostensibly de rigueur for the middle class. But it does meant
they 'understand' the art or get much out of it; they go because it's a custom.
This is my take on it. I don't care if there are other people 'like' me, i.e., color wise, at
a museum though I must say it does affect me to see someone like me as a guard or
so forth.
In the end, what should really matter is the reason behind a visit to a museum. Is it
because you're interested or because it will reflect well on you?

Karl123
07 January 2007 11:56am

You say your galleries are not just for the white middle class. but then you hit the nail
on the head and ask where the different races are. You didn't ask where the white
working class are. The white working class are not cuddly PC enough for middle
class people like you.

DrJohnZoidberg
07 January 2007 11:59am

Don't know what the answer is but just so long as they preserve their standards by
not letting working class white trash like myself.
Could we please ponder why the Guardian seems at liberty to describe my socio-

Could we please ponder why the Guardian seems at liberty to describe my socioeconomic group thus and whether or not this too is racist?

WheatFromChaff
07 January 2007 12:23pm

As far as non-issues go, this has to be near the top of the list. It is just creating a
"problem" where none exists: almost certainly with no other purpose than to get
some free advertising in the Guardian.
Come on. How many people who go into your gallery - whether they be white, black
or of asian origin - are going to "see themselves" in a French trapeze artist firing
cannons out of her mouth? Or "relate to" an 18th century nouveaux riche dandy?
Anybody who says that they will not go to the National Gallery because "they" are not
depicted therein is being both monumentally self-centred and incredibly pathetic. The
truth, of course, is that they (like most people) can't be bothered/aren't interested but are too insecure to admit it.
(Unless they have been cajoled into visiting the Tate Modern and assume that all the
other galleries are as trite and dire as that is.)

ImagineBGP
07 January 2007 12:40pm

Could it be possible that the readers have missed the joke here? Yet the responders
betray more of themselves than they intended.

Lacanian
07 January 2007 12:47pm

well this one doesn't take a genius. Cultural artifacts represent the shared meaning
and values of a collective group, or in the last 200 years, the modern nation. Given
that most black people don't identify with 18th and 19th century Britain, the answer to
your question seems obvious.
I never see a shortage of black faces at contemporary galleries like WhiteCube. Why
is that?
There is no point ruining the artistic niche of the National Gallery by trying to make it
more inclusive to fit some political agenda. Just carry on like you are now, unless of
course there are funding issues to consider.

LabanTall
07 January 2007 1:05pm

Oh, the shame ! The guilt ! The horror !

I trust Mr Albert checks his dinner party invites and Christmas card lists using the
same criteria.
It works both ways though. For years Tower Hamlets and Brixton councils have been
beating themselves up about the small number of elderly white coach party visitors to
their boroughs. Inexplicably thay prefer to go to stately homes or the village where
Heartbeat is filmed. Unless those councils can address their unwitting racism this
situation is likely to continue.

cheeba
07 January 2007 1:07pm

I'm glad to see that there is a general consensus amongst commenters that this
article is completely misguided in its analysis and misleading in its implications. As
far as I can see, the consensus revolves around the following facts:
a) Ethnic minorities make up around 9% of the British population, 'black' (as in of
Afro-Caribbean or African origin) 2.2% according to the 2001 census.
b) Representation at museums and galleries will be further skewed by the fact that
the attendees will be disproportionately middle-class, and therefore underrepresentative of ethnic minorities.
c) Rightly or wrongly, a proportion of people from ethnic minorities will be less-thanaveragely interested in the the history and traditions of Britain, feeling wider or
different cultural and aesthetic connections incorporating other regions, countries and
traditions.
Its unfortunate that the museological and curatorial culture in this country has moved
so far from any belief in the possibility of adhering to ideals of quality and truth
(however indefinable they may be) that the only measure of value is numbers
through the door - perhaps tweaked on the spurious grounds of representation and
accessibility. Why should black, 'ethnic' or working-class people go to a museum just
to view a middle-class curator's guess at what they might be interested in, rather
than the best possible presentation of the museum's collection?
Its worth looking at the reasons for this confusion, however, not least the fact that the
dominant role of the capital in setting media, government and cultural policy.
Naturally, in a city where the population is 40% ethnic minorities (and the majority of
those non-white), it is easy to imagine that certain groups are under-represented
when in actual fact they are disproportionately common (understandably, given that
proximity to the jobs in London is related to employment opportunities and is thus
likely to result in a demographic mix in these sectors closer to that of the local
population than that of the national average). Witness the "hideously white" BBC,
whose leading news presenters (for example) are around 50% non-white.
Of course, the whole point of focusing on issues of class and economic exclusion is
to avoid this kind of thing. Institutional attempts to counter-act exclusion on other
grounds are limited to those factors they are ideologically pre-disposed to recognise for example, race, gender and disability, rather than ideological non-conformity or UK
region of origin. So rather than attempt to micro-manage discrimination from the top
down, it seems a lot better to try to implement a general system of economic
inclusivity and let the cultural and social effects develop organically from that.
P.S. Personal bugbear:
It's also difficult to see any kind of logic surrounding the current use of the term
"ethnic minorities", which increasingly seems to be used a synonym for skin colour.
The actual meaning (still, just) of ethnicity is a set of cultural and social traditions,
beliefs and behavioural codes, so the "ethnic minorities" of the UK incorporate white
Irish, white Polish and white Australians. Similarly, "black" is sometimes used as a
catch-all term for any non-Caucasian, despite the massive cultural, social and
economic differences between different groups. This kind of linguistic confusion only
encourages the muddled thinking typified by this article.

Waltz
07 January 2007 1:35pm

@ curious1 - "I go to the National Gallery a lot and I have often played a game that I
sometimes find amusing. You can play it, too. Have a wander around any major
British art institution and play 'spot the nice and friendly unpretentious person '."
And there was me thinking that the purpose of an art gallery was to exhibit art.

And there was me thinking that the purpose of an art gallery was to exhibit art.

Metatone
07 January 2007 1:46pm

Jonah, I'd appreciate any attempt to put the paintings in the National into any kind of
context at all, especially the lesser known ones.
It's a long time since I did any art history and I'm strongest on the things I really like
(in my case the more modern wing). Hence, I wander around the older sections and
it's really just a bunch of images, there's barely any information with each painting.
This won't magically alter the ethnic ratio of attendees, but the museum would stand
a lot better chance of reaching people who don't have education in art if it explained
more about the works and why they might matter.

wotson
07 January 2007 1:49pm

I wonder if those nice people at the CRE attend all classical music concerts to see if
non whites are being discrimated against and refused entry. They have got as far as
the Scilly Isles and moaned there are no black firefighters despite no blacks living
there. Presumably, in our very own Olympics-assuming they don;t go into liquidation
before 2012-strict ethnic quotas will be applied to the British team:10% Scots and
Caribbeans,80% Whites etc regardless of ability of course.Then of course how many
non white airline and air force pilots are there? Then isn;t it the turn of the Welsh to
be prime minister.

ThatBernardGirl
07 January 2007 1:51pm

D6jevind; I have every intention of moving though not for the reason you've
suggested. Can I point out that I was born here? As were my parents? That my dad
served in the army? That my grandmother was one of many who came on the
Windrush to rescue Britain's economic slump? Others have a similar story - and so
the lack of allegiance is nothing innate. You can say 'find some other country', but
please be aware that I would have no problem supporting a state and society that
didn't treat people who look like me and have a similar history as burdensome scum.
If you read the rest of the comments, by comparison, I am fully supportive of the
National Gallery and go there often. I encourage others to do the same because I
don't understand the myopia of people who say they are not interested in the art of a
particular culture. London has the biggest population of black people in this country it is disproportionate to the rest of Britain. If you walk around London, the presence is
obvious - so it makes sense to question why a similar presence is not felt in major
institutions.
The point is to get beyond only looking at things which have some
historical/racial/cultural reference to you. I encourage my black friends to do so,
because it's important to understand what informs current racial tension - and I would
encourage many of the commenters here as well; the ignorance of most of these
posts suggests that the majority, who I gather are white, have never bothered to
engage in art/culture outside of themselves. Perhaps it is a matter of 'interest' - but
when and how were these 'interests' formed? It's a curious word because the sense
in which most people have used it implies some innate, inherent thing, rather than an
active assessment.

Chuckman
07 January 2007 1:57pm

'Enticing' people to great cultural institutions just about always ends up debasing the
institutions.
This has been an unfortunate, favored concept in many American museums in recent
decades: they end up with slide shows or movies or other pop trash.
People in a democracy do have a right not to attend cultural institutions, and, equally,
those who do attend and support them should be able to do so without a marketing
circus.
Some institutions will always retain an element of seeming elite that is simply the
result of their appealing to a small slice of society, those with curiosity and keen
intellectual interests.
Try as you might, not everyone will enjoy watching The Magic Flute or reading
Shakespeare.
The one approach that tries to help introduce art galleries to new generations without
a lot of silly marketing or trashy pop displays is for schools to see that all their
students are exposed to them on regular school trips.
Still, only a limited number will become gallery goers when they grow up. After all,
we've been teaching Shakespeare in literature classes for ages, and it is still a small
slice of the public that reads or attends his plays.

Orwellsghost
07 January 2007 2:28pm

Firstly, this article is pointless because the art exhibited in the National Gallery is art
and of universal import.
Secondly, the fact that visitors from ethnic minorities are under represented is
nothing to do with the National Gallery which is preserve that inheritance and present
it interestingly as art and not as some kind of representation of ideologies of class,
gender or race etc etc.
Those who are interested in art in such a way can do so by reading their texts on
critical theory outside the gallery because such interpretations are, in any case,
contested.
Those interested in the political message of the art are free to do so and those
opposed to the world view of Reynolds and Gainsborough could always read what
they want into the art of Wlliam Blake who was in the English radical underground
tradition and against slavery, empire , the "dark satanic mills".
Yet in Jonah Albert's article we have the usual conjuncture of a faux radicalism and
market force populism acting as a stimulus to self important people advancing their
career and public profile in the manner of a Greg Dyke. This reflects a trend towards
mediocrity and patronising the audience through a mixture of cynicism and
concupiscence rather than a genuine attempt to bring the arts to the masses in a way
that might make it mean something to them. That is important irrespective of
race,origin or creed and is Jonah Albert's job rather than playing on sectional
cupidities.
And this, as with so many other things, is the wider result of the crude utilitarian view
of the role of the arts in public life and the prevalence of tacky showbiz values and
the deficiencies of the education system for poorer members of society. In particular,
many black people no less than poorer whites are not introduced to art on TV as it
was in programmes such as Kenneth Clarke's Civilisation.
The other problem ,of course, is that post-colonialism hasn't thrown up works of art in
Britain in the way it has done in literature, so the content of the National Gallery is

Britain in the way it has done in literature, so the content of the National Gallery is
bound to be somewhat "fossilised" in the past.
Yet, most visitors to the National Gallery will tend to be middle class and tourists
simply because art just doesn't mean a lot to the majority of the people in Britain
irrespective of their race. The National Gallery is there for those who want it. You
can't make it trendy or "accessible" without detracting from the point of the gallery
which is to exhibit artistic masterpieces and that really is the end of it.

curious1
07 January 2007 2:38pm

@waltz "And there was me thinking that the purpose of an art gallery was to exhibit
art."
Pay attention Waltz pay attention.
Nation Gallery Game 2: When in the National here is a game that I sometimes find
amusing. You can play it, too. Have a wander around a major British art institution
and play 'spot the untinted smirky guy in bespoke suit and superiority complex who
flits through the rooms ignoring the paintings'. There's just one rule. To win game
aforementioned smirky guy must have massive ego and be seen "in flagrante delicto"
counting tinted visages.

Comments for this discussion are now closed.

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