All the World's a Stage

Higgie profiles artist and cultural activist Lubaina Himid who emerged as a key figure of the British Black arts movement in the 1980s, making art and staging exhibitions that expressed and recognized Black experience and women's creativity. Since then, the Turner Prize winner has become renowned for her figurative paintings, sculptural installations and objects, often inspired by her interest in theatre, that colorfully and sensitively give voice to people who have been overlooked or silenced throughout history. Her journey to becoming an artist was circuitous. In the 1970s, Himid trained as a theatre designer at the Wimbledon College of Art, but it wasn't the right fit: she laughingly describes conventional theatre as "my idea of hell". She joined a small theatre group run by friends, and found work sewing costumes at the Royal Opera House and waitressing in a brasserie in Covent Garden.