Scheduled to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, this one-day symposium will explore an important but still widely overlooked aspect of the Festival and its legacy: namely, the disproportionately large creative input of those from (mostly) Jewish immigrant families and of former refugees from Nazism – many of them imprisoned behind barbed wire as so-called ‘enemy aliens’ only eleven years earlier.
In so doing, it will invite a closer critical scrutiny both of the nature and extent of that input and of the complex issues of postwar cultural renewal, national memory and identity, patriotism and assimilation, both then and in the present – and by extension highlight the creative contributions of more recent immigrants and their descendants to this contemporary British life.
Comprising a lively mixture of illustrated talks, discussions, aconcert and anexhibition, the symposium programme is aimed at both a general and a specialist audience.
The project is initiated and organised by Monica Bohm-Duchen, founding director of Insiders/Outsiders, an ongoing celebration of the contribution made by refugees from Nazi Europe to British culture, in partnership with St John’s Waterloo. Restored after being bombed during WWII, it became the official church for the Festival of Britain and home to two major paintings by German-Jewish émigré artist Hans Feibusch. The symposium and concert form part of “Now I make a leaf of voices“, a series of events celebrating St John’s Festival of Britain heritage, which runs between July and December 2026.
The symposium also has the support of Counterpoints Arts, a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change in the present.
A Tonic to the Nation: The Immigrant and Refugee Contribution to the Festival of Britain
Exhibition: Music, Migration and Mobility
Émigré Cabaret
Programme
SYMPOSIUM
9:15am onwards: Registration
9:45am: Welcome by organisers, including short talk about the history of St John’s Waterloo by Euchar Gravina, Artistic Director of St John’s Waterloo
10am: Introductory lecture by Dr. Harriet Atkinson (Harriet Atkinson – The University of Brighton), author of The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People (2012) and essay on ‘Artists, Refugees and the Festival of Britain’ in Insiders/Outsiders: Refugees from Nazi Europe and their Contribution to British Visual Culture (Insiders/Outsiders – Lund Humphries). Will also include discussion of small but significant Afro-Caribbean presence at Festival.
10.45am: Coffee break
11am: Lecture on émigré architects and landscape designers associated with the Festival by Alan Powers, author of chapter on architects in the Insiders/Outsiders anthology and co-editor of Festival of Britain (2001/11)
11:20am: Talk by Naomi Games about her father, graphic designer Abram Games
11:40am: Lecture on the émigré designers by Dr. Anna Nyburg (Dr Anna Nyburg | Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies), author of essay on ‘Émigré Designers’ in Insiders/Outsiders anthology
12pm: Rivka Isaacson, Professor of Molecular Biophysics, Kings College London, on the relationship of science and the arts during the Festival – particularly the use of x-ray crystallography in the creation of patterns and designs and the role of Austrian-born biochemist Max Perutz.
12:20pm-1pm: Q&A
1pm: Lunch (independent)
2pm: Lecture by Monica Bohm-Duchen, independent art historian, on the émigré painters and photographers
2:20pm: Lecture by Sarah MacDougall, Head of Collections and Special Projects, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum (Ben Uri) on the émigré sculptors
2:40pm: Dr. Rachel Dickson, Consultant Editor, Ben Uri Research Unit (buru.org.uk), on the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition – Art Section held at the Ben Uri in 1951.
3pm-3:30pm: Q&A
3:30pm: Tea break
4pm: Panel Discussion
5:15pm: Guided tour of the Music, Migration and Mobility travelling exhibition (EXHIBITION | Musicmigration) by its curator Norbert Meyn, initiator of Music, Migration and Mobility research project (Music, Migration and Mobility | Royal College of Music). The exhibition, which features a section on the Festival of Britain, will be on display in the crypt area of St John’s.
EVENING CONCERT
7pm: Émigré Cabaret (Émigré Cabaret performances in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Bristol and Salzburg), performed live by Christopher Gould (piano) and Norbert Meyn (tenor).
