Artists flock to Brixton to mark 40th anniversary of UK black arts movement

Black British artists gather for photograph inspired by Art Kane’s A Great Day in Harlem. Photograph: David Kwaw Mensah

It had the makings of a great day in Brixton. Before noon more than 50 artists from across generations had flocked to the Black Cultural Archives to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the British black arts movement.

It is not often you’ll find Britain’s foremost artists of African and Caribbean ancestry including Charlie Phillips, Keith Piper, Marlene Smith and Claudette Johnson, among others, gathered alongside emerging talents for a photograph inspired by Art Kane’s classic 1958 A Great Day in Harlem, which had captured the luminaries of the New York jazz scene at the time.