A Tonic to the Nation: Refugees and Immigrants at the Festival of Britain

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, a concert and the Royal College of Music exhibition 'Music, Migration and Mobility' about émigré musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain, the symposium programme is aimed at both a general and a specialist audience.

For further information about the exhibition, click and the concert click .

The project is initiated and organised by Monica Bohm-Duchen, founding director of , 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 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 has the support of , a leading national organisation in the field of arts, migration and cultural change in the present. We are also grateful to the Shoresh Charitable Trust and the Werthwhile Foundation for their financial support and to for acting as our press partner.

The summer issue of the magazine will feature a special section on the Festival of Britain.

The provisional programme for the day is below.

Info: Welcome by organisers, including short talk about the history of St John’s Waterloo by Euchar Gravina, Artistic Director of St John’s Waterloo.

Info: Introductory lecture by Dr. Harriet Atkinson, 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.

Info: 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).

Info: Talk by Naomi Games about her father, graphic designer Abram Games.

Info: Lecture on the émigré designers by Dr. Anna Nyburg, author of essay on ‘Émigré Designers’ in Insiders/Outsiders anthology.

Info: 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.

Info: Lecture by Monica Bohm-Duchen, independent art historian, on the émigré painters and photographers.

Info: Lecture by Sarah MacDougall, Head of Collections and Special Projects, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum on the émigré sculptors.

Info: Dr. Rachel Dickson, consultant editor, on the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition held at the Ben Uri in 1951.

Info: Details of participants to come.

Info: Guided tour of the Royal College of Music's 'Music, Migration and Mobility' travelling exhibition by its curator Norbert Meyn, initiator of Music, Migration and Mobility research project. The exhibition, which features a section on the Festival of Britain, will be on display in the crypt area of St John’s.

Info: Émigré Cabaret performed live by Christopher Gould (piano) and Norbert Meyn (tenor).

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