Michael I. Ohajuru DUniv, FRSA
Image of the Black in London Galleries Chief Docent
Few historians working today have done more to advance knowledge and understanding of Black British history and art history.
Honorary Doctorate , Open University citation , 22nd March 2024
It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
first attributed to Henry David Thoreau

The map is not the territory. 
NLP
​​The Image of the Black in London Galleries (IBLG) from Michael I. Ohajuru DUniv, FRSA, highlights the Black presence to be found in the national art collections in London. There is a Black presence in many of the works in the nation’s collections in London. That presence takes many different forms; Black figures are depicted as musicians, as kings, as slaves, as servants, as saints and sometime just as people and even as artist in their own right. The Black presence is most cases is explicit though not immediately and sometimes the presence has to teased out, IBLG seeks to make those Black presences better known and understood.
 
IBLG covers four London galleries; ​National Gallery, Tate Britain, The Wallace Collection and The Victoria and Albert Museum.
 
Each gallery is available as a two-hour physical, in person tour or two one-hour online lectures delivered by Zoom.

To book a tour or presentation email [email protected]

select your gallery

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Let Black be synonymous with glory. Be bigger than the picture they framed for us to see
 Beyoncé, Black Is King, 2020
Our Spirits, Scars and Creativity have left marks and reminders across Europe and only our own, will bring those histories forward to be pointed out and remembered.
Dee Lawrence
Visual Artist