ABSTRACT
In 1976, Naseem Khan published a ground-breaking report The Arts Britain Ignores. The report presented the case for arts and culture in England to better reflect the talent, contribution, and stories of ethnically diverse and migrant artists to the creative life of Britain. The Arts Britain Ignores would serve as a catalyst for the development of equality and diversity policies and initiatives by public funding agencies and challenge the notions of who defines excellence. In total the Arts Council invested in twenty Change Makers across different artistic disciplines nationally based at organisations, including Battersea Arts Centre, Sheffield Theatres, Manchester Museum, Hull Truck Theatre, and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Five years on from accepting responsibility for leading the Equality and Diversity agenda at the Arts Council there is much to reflect upon. Diversity as an all-encompassing term is becoming increasingly problematic, its breadth of interpretation risks dilution.
