Celebrating Naivety: the role of Black artists in multicultural and anti‐racist education

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Abstract
In 1985 the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) published the findings of a research project which pointed to an absence of Black artists in the British cultural scene. As a consequence several Arts Bodies and Local Education Authorities (LEAs) together with the CRE entered into partnership to launch an educational programme aimed at raising the status and visibility of Black artists. The Arts Education for a Multicultural Society (AEMS) project was launched in six LEAs in 1987. This paper reports on the findings of an external evaluation project in one LEA. By drawing on materials from interviews with artists, teachers and pupils a case is presented for the educational value of enjoyable, ‘critical’ events. However, it is also argued that these events contributed to the raising of awareness of the participants concerning the nature of inequalities founded in racism. The paper concludes by proposing that the project reported on provides a model for teaching and learning strategies in multicultural and anti‐racist education which should not be dismissed too readily for ideological reasons.

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