The Home Office imposes restrictions on international artists and academics visiting the UK for talks, temporary exhibitions, concerts or artists’ residencies. Visitors have to submit to a series of arduous and expensive proceedures to get their visa, and then more bureaucratic controls when they are in the UK. Many concerts and residencies have been cancelled.
The Manifesto Club works in alliance with artists, musicians, academics and students to oppose these suspicious restrictions – and to affirm the vital contribution made by global artists and scholars to UK cultural and intellectual life.
LATEST: This campaign won major concessions and a change in UK visa rules. See our briefing on the changes.
November 2009 is the fourth anniversary of the introduction of compulsory Citizenship Tests for immigrants seeking British Citizenship. For the past four years wanna-be citizens have had to prove their suitability as British citizens by sitting a test on British culture, history…
The Home Office recently introduced new restrictions on international artists and academics visiting the UK for talks, temporary exhibitions, concerts or artists’ residencies. Visitors now have to submit to a series of arduous and expensive procedures to get their visa, and then…
The Home Office recently introduced new restrictions on international artists and academics visiting the UK for talks, temporary exhibitions, concerts or artists’ residencies. The Manifesto Club has launched a report, UK Arts and Culture: Cancelled, by Order of the Home Office, detailing…
Cabaret Without Borders – talks and performances against the Home Office’s new controls on visiting artists and academics. This is part of the Manifesto Club’s summer events series, Freedom Summer. See the Video of the Cabaret Without Borders Event, on WorldBytes. This…
The Home Office recently introduced new restrictions on international artists and academics visiting the UK for talks, temporary exhibitions, concerts or artists’ residencies. Visitors now have to submit to a series of arduous and expensive proceedures to get their visa, and then…
Testimonial from an Artist, his Translator and Chili Hawes, Director of The October Gallery. An Artist from Beijing and his translator were both refused a visa to attend the Artist’s own Private View at The October Gallery which opened in February 2009. Since all the visa applications in Beijing must be submitted through Visa Application Center (VAC) not British Embassy, the officer at VAC couldn’t advise us what type of visa we should apply. So based on our previous experiences about visa applications, we chose to apply for a visa as business visitors from a range of “General visitor, Family visitor, Business…
The regulations, which were officially put into effect on 27 November 2008, have meant a number of artists have been refused entry. Read testimonies below, and email visitingartists@manifestoclub.com to post a comment. An update from Flavia D’Avila, a Brazilian theatre star Ruganzu Bruno, a Ugandan Visual Artist which tells the despairing narrative of how African artists are treated by visa officials who create an arduous, costly and impervious system that is insurmountable for up-and-coming artists who don’t earn a substantial income from their art. Read the full testimony. Flavia D’Avila is a theatre star facing deportation. Read the full testimony. Visual and…
The Home Office recently introduced new restrictions on international artists and academics visiting the UK for talks, temporary exhibitions, concerts or artists’ residencies. Visitors now have to submit to a series of arduous and expensive proceedures to get their visa, and then…