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Michael McMillan

Born, 1962 in High Wycombe

Michael McMillan, (then of Middlesex University) contributed a chapter - “Aesthetics of the West Indian Front Room” - to “Black” British Aesthetics Today. Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. In the catalogue Who More Sci-Fi Than Us?: Contemporary Art from the Caribbean, (Kunsthal KAdE Amersfoort, Smallepad 3, 3811 MG, Amersfoort, Netherlands, 25 May - 26 August 2012), McMillan was described as follows:

“Michael McMillan is a writer, artist, academic of Vincentian migrant heritage whose plays/performance pieces include: a new translation of Bertold Brecht’s The Good Person of Sezuan set in Jamaica 1980 (MAT 2010), Master Juba (2006) Babel Junction (2006), Blood for Britain (BBC Radio 4 Drama 2001), I Hope it’s not a Black Man (1996), Brother to Brother (1996), Invisible (1993), Portrait of a Shopping Centre as a Cathedral (1990), First Impressions (1988), On Duty (Channel 4 1984), Hard Time Pressure (1980) and The School Leaver (1978).

As an artist/curator he is best known for critically acclaimed and popular The West Indian Front Room (Geffrye Museum 2005-6)…”

McMillan was one of four curators responsible for No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990, a sizeable exhibition and archive project, the centrepiece of which was a six-month exhibition that took place at Guildhall Art Gallery, London, 10 July 2015 – 24 January 2016. The exhibition aligned itself to, and had a pronounced interplay with, not only the struggles immigrant communities in Britain, particularly during the 1960s to 1980, but also some of the manifestations of these struggles, such as the Black bookshop, and Black British publishing initiatives.

Within the No Colour Bar catalogue, McMillan was described as “a British-born playwright, mixed-media artist/curator, and scholar of Vincentian migrant parentage. He is best known for The West Indian Front Room (2005-06). Recent installation-based exhibitions include: No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990 (2015-16), Doing Nothing is Not an Option (2015), Rockers, Soulheads & Lovers: Sound Systems back in da Day (2015-16) and The Front Room “Ina Joburg” (FADA Gallery (UJ), Johannesburg 2016. He has the first Arts Doctorate from Middlesex University (2010) and is currently an Associate Lecturer in Culture & Historical Studies at London College of Fashion (University of the Arts, London) as well as Research Associate with the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre (VIAD), University of Johannesburg.”