In April 2024, we published our groundbreaking report Visualise: race and inclusion in secondary school art education. In that report we highlighted the value of art education both for the transformative potential it has for individual students and for the broader benefit it offers to society.

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One of the key findings from the report was that the GCSE art examination, as currently prescribed by exam board materials, simply did not showcase or associate high value to the art produced by artists of colour and that there was a vast lacuna in the representation of art, which tended to be overwhelmingly white, male and European. Correcting that deficit was our first and primary recommendation.

For that report, we conducted an analysis of exam papers used by the four major exam boards over this period and reviewed 27 papers to understand the visibility and type of representation of artists of colour and their work. We also consulted with all four exam boards during the research and publication phase of the original report, sharing with them the findings that showed the glaring lack of representation.  

This brief report provides an update a year later, looking at how this year’s (2025) GCSE Art and Design papers compare to the 2018-2022 papers previously analysed.

Our findings show that there has been significant and encouraging progress in terms of exam board effort to introduce greater diversity into their exam paper stimuli.

This includes:

• A fivefold  increase in references to standalone Black and South Asian artists, moving from 2.3% to 11.3%. This includes a sevenfold increase in references to standalone Black artists, and a fourfold increase for South Asian artists (from 1.5% to 10.6% and 0.7% to 2.7% respectively) over the period 2018/22 - 2025.
• Mentions of standalone artists of colour have increased from only 8.4% to 23.3%, a 177% increase in representation.

• Increases in representation have been seen across all four of the exam boards, with the largest increases seen for Black artists.

These shifts reflect a significant effort that has been invested by exam boards to address the gaps that were identified in our report, and demonstrates considerable movement, progress and understanding the value of addressing these gaps.

There do remain some areas for improvement: 

• Whilst a greater percentage of artists of colour featured in the curriculum are now contemporary artists, less progress has been made in content which looks at earlier time periods.
• There is roughly the same level of representation amongst artists of colour to nondescript pre-1800 art, with this dropping from 14.5% to 14.4%.
• There continues to be a significant lack of artists of colour who worked in the 19th century and between 1900 - 1965, with no representation at all in the mid 20th Century (1920-1965). These are key dates within the modern western art canon, which are widely taught as part of the GCSE art curriculum.

• The increase in representation has also not been uniform. Although the representation of Black artists has increased from 1.8% to 8.7% of all artists referenced, South Asian representation has only increased from 1.2% to 2.5% - a disappointing level of representation.

Conclusion

Since the publication of the 2024 report, we have experienced some of the worst racist riots witnessed in generations and the wider enablement of far right rhetoric to become routine and normalised. There are of course direct actions that need to be taken to deal with these events - both in terms of dealing with the racism and Islamophobic rhetoric that have flowed from mainstream politicians and media and the structurally embedded policies that reinforce and encourage this process. However, these riots relied on an exclusionary idea of who ‘we’ are, and who can ‘belong’ and so it feels important to highlight the integral role that education and - in this context - art and cultural education play in providing a counter-narrative and a space for recognising the mosaic of diversity that is the reality of who ‘we’ are. 

As we said in the original report, art education is one of the few spaces in the curriculum that encourages creativity and personal exploration and expression. It is a canvas where children and young people can be invited to reflect on our broad artistic heritage, and so making sure that this heritage is reflected in its full, colourful glory is critical to being able to resist the ascendant far right narratives that promote hate, exclusion and division.

Whilst there is clearly more work to be done, art exam board teams have done considerable work in the space of a year to interrogate their examination materials. This required no significant additional financial investment but has secured significant and much needed change which will  no doubt steer towards a wider benefit. 

Prime Minister Starmer has clearly stated that:

“[e]veryone deserves the chance to be touched by art. Everyone deserves access to moments that light up their lives. And every child deserves the chance to study the creative subjects that widen their horizons, provide skills employers do value, and prepares them for the future, the jobs and the world that they will inherit.” 

This commitment to art education must be followed through with the Curriculum and Assessment Review that is currently in progress. The interim report published in late March 2025 committed to “ensur[ing] that the curriculum (and related material) is inclusive so that all young people can see themselves represented in their learning, as well as seeing others’ perspectives and broadening their horizons”. Our findings here show that there is considerable improvement that can be made if the government can provide the right policy incentives and encouragement for exam boards to promote inclusive materials in their specifications and guidance. 

We strongly urge the Curriculum and Assessment Review Commission to make an explicit recommendation that  inclusive materials are a compulsory and standardised expectation in art education, and indeed to make the equivalent recommendation in all curriculum areas. 

This goes some way towards the more ambitious and urgently needed goal of building an anti-racist education system that challenges the logics that have designed curriculum content and school structures that fail to give all children and young people the opportunity to thrive and flourish.

There is much more to be done, more to do around initial teacher education, continuing professional development, improving racial literacy, as well enhancing curriculum content and improving the data landscape, as well as relationships between schools and galleries. Change doesn’t happen overnight or in a year, but the findings here reveal that meaningful,  incremental steps to change are possible and, with the right policy levers and incentives, the government can accelerate and support the development of a more inclusive curriculum. 

Recommendations to the Curriculum and Assessment Review Commission:

1. Establish minimum standards for inclusion and diversity in GCSE Art assessment materials.
2. Art teachers to be supported through Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and CPDL to develop their subject expertise to support delivery based on more inclusive exam papers.
   
   1. This includes embedding an understanding of racial literacy and a commitment to anti-racism as a key competency for entering the teaching profession. Alongside this, schools should improve resources (time and financial) for school-based mentors to engage with ongoing Continuing Professional Development (CDP) and collaborative professional networks. 
   2. The Department for Education should establish formal structures of training and accreditation for ITE professionals and school-based mentors, including requirements for mandatory subject knowledge development and training on anti-racism, inclusion and diversity in pedagogy and curriculum development.

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