Yorkshire and East artists join UK embassy art scheme

Ten new works by artists from Yorkshire and the Humber and the East of England are joining the Government Art Collection, with plans for them to appear in government buildings across the UK and in British embassies and ambassadors' residences overseas, including Washington DC, Ankara, Abu Dhabi and Paris. In the government's announcement, Arts Minister Ruth Mackenzie said the aim was to champion regional artists both nationally and internationally. That may sound like a small culture story, but it opens a bigger question: who gets to represent Britain when the state chooses art for its own walls? Public collections do not only decorate rooms. They help shape the national story people see at home and abroad.

If you have never come across the Government Art Collection before, you are not alone. It sits within government and lends works to official spaces in more than 125 countries. According to the announcement, this latest round is the fourth instalment of Art X-UK, a five-year acquisitions programme set up to make the collection reflect creative talent from across the whole of the UK. The scheme began as a pilot in 2020-21 and then became a national programme in 2022. Since then, more than 170 pieces by 80 contemporary visual artists have been acquired. **What this means:** when government buys art, it is also making a choice about which people, places and histories are visible in public life.

This year's focus was Yorkshire and the Humber and the East of England. The artists acquired from Yorkshire and the Humber were Kedisha Coakley, Karanjit Panesar, Grace Clifford and Sam Metz. From the East of England, the selected artists were Issam Kourbaj, Sikelela Owen, Amartey Golding and Claire Cansick. Regional focus matters here. Too much attention in the arts still gathers around London and a small group of institutions. A programme like this tries to push back by asking local networks, curators and artists which voices are helping define culture in places such as Sheffield, Hull, Cambridge and Norfolk.

Some of the works begin with objects and experiences many people would recognise straight away. Grace Clifford's acquired piece is a bronze pub stool, and her wider practice uses ordinary materials and industrial forms to question the stereotypes often placed on working-class communities. Sheffield, she said in the original announcement, gave her the time, space and support to make the work possible. Other artists bring different histories into the same public picture. Issam Kourbaj, who was born in Syria and has lived in Cambridge since 1990, explores migration, memory and displacement through layered, fragile materials and found objects. Kedisha Coakley's sculptures look at colonialism, botany, extraction and Black British identity, while Sam Metz has spoken about stimming as creative practice and the importance of disabled artists' communities in Yorkshire.

Claire Cansick's work draws on Norfolk and on the feeling of living in a place that can seem nationally overlooked while still holding a strong local arts community. Amartey Golding connects his practice to eastern England's long history of resistance and social reform. Put alongside Kourbaj, Coakley, Clifford and Metz, those choices make the collection less narrow and more truthful. That point matters because public collections have not always reflected the full country. Working-class histories, Black British life, disabled artists, migrant memory and coastal communities are often spoken about as if they sit at the edge of national culture. This acquisition argues the opposite: these stories belong in the middle of it.

It is also worth pausing on where these works will be seen. They are not only going into storage or specialist galleries. They will be shown in government buildings across the UK and in ten British embassies and ambassadors' residences overseas. That means the art becomes part of Britain's public face. **What this means:** diplomacy is not only made through speeches and meetings. It is also made through symbols, rooms and the stories carried on the walls. If an embassy shows only safe, familiar or socially narrow versions of British culture, it sends a limited picture of the country. A broader collection gives visitors a more honest one.

The way the artists were chosen is part of the story too. For 2025-26, the Government Art Collection worked with Yorkshire and Humber Visual Art Network and CVAN East. Each network brought together artists and curators to suggest a shortlist, which the collection team then researched before making acquisitions. That is a useful reminder that local knowledge matters when national institutions are trying to represent a place fairly. The wider Art X-UK timetable shows the programme moving around the UK rather than staying fixed in one cultural centre. Earlier rounds covered Wales and the Midlands, then Scotland and the North East, then Northern Ireland and the North West. The final year is due to focus on the South East and South West.

Rosie Cooper, director of Wysing Arts Centre and chair of CVAN East, described the Government Art Collection as part of the UK's 'cultural memory bank'. That is a helpful phrase to sit with. Collections decide what gets kept, what gets funded and what future audiences are invited to remember. For readers, teachers and students, this is the deeper lesson in the story. A bronze pub stool, a work shaped by Mediterranean crossings, or sculptures about colonial histories can all end up representing Britain overseas. The important question is not only whether the art looks good on a wall. It is whether the public collection is open enough, curious enough and fair enough to show the country in full.