Insiders/Outsiders

More about the book

Insiders/Outsiders , published to accompany a UK-wide arts festival of the same name in 2019, examines the extraordinarily rich and pervasive contribution of refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe to the visual culture, art education, and art-world structures of the United Kingdom. In every field, émigrés arriving from Europe in the 1930s—supported by a small number of like-minded individuals already resident in the UK—introduced a professionalism, internationalism, and bold avant-gardism to a British art world not known for these attributes. At a time when the issue of immigration is much debated, the book serves as a reminder of the importance of cultural cross-fertilization and of the deep, long-lasting, and wide-ranging contribution that refugees make to British life.