Home Office Bars US Artist From Arts Festival in East London

Cristina Winsor, a US citizen and talented artist from the downtown East Village New York scene innocently arrived in London on Sunday 6 September to visit friends and take part in a free five day art festival in the respected east London venue The Foundry only to be detained for 9 hours in a detention centre at Heathrow airport and escorted on an outbound plane back to New York by armed security guards. Her crime? Carrying 2 small paintings under her arm, which she wished to exhibit at the festival and with a bit of luck, sell for a few hundred dollars.

Statement from Cristina Winsor. "The immigration officials told me that selling my work was illegal without a business visa, and took me to the detention centre for further questioning. I told them I wouldn't sell my paintings if it was against the law, and even offered to leave them at the airport so that I could at least stay in the country and see my friends, and pick them up on my way out. They said they couldn't trust me to have changed my mind so fast, and that they couldn't show me favouritism by holding my paintings until my return flight four days later. I then sat in the immigration detention centre for 9 hours and was escorted to an outbound NYC flight by security. They only gave me back my passport once I disembarked in JFK airport in NY. I opened my passport to see a little 'barred entry' symbol."

Michael Bucknell, curator of the five day international arts festival, The Meaning of Art said: “we are shocked that someone should be refused entry to the UK because of our festival. It is particularly ironic that the meaning of art should turn out to be 9 hours detention, and a flight back to the USA.”

Cristina Winsor is the latest victim of the new immigration regulations which took full effect in November last year, wreaking havoc on international arts events across the UK, preventing artists, poets and musicians from taking part in numerous festivals and other arts projects. Invited artists from the non-EU area are now required to be “sponsored” by a UK organisation at considerable cost under the new points-based system. Copies of official documents, such as passport and biometric identification are required to be kept by the host, and should the invited artist’s whereabouts become unknown, the host is legally obliged to inform the UK Borders Agency. Phil Woolas, Minister for Borders and Immigration introduced the ludicrous new Business visitors rules on 16 October 2008, stating that with the introduction of “an Australian-style points based system for selective migration, it makes sense to tighten visit visas at the same time.”

Manick Govinda, artist producer at Artsadmin and campaigner for the civil liberties group, The Manifesto Club who set up a petition against the Home Offices restrictions on non-EU artists said: “In the past, artists had no problems entering the UK for short visits to participate in arts events. Yet again, these draconian immigration rules criminalize invited artists who pose no security threat and are not robbing British artists of work, yet these are the reasons that the Home Office have given for imposing these jackboot style laws – to prevent terrorism and safeguard British jobs. Phil Woolas and the UK Borders Agency have lost all sense of reason.”

Art luminaries, writers and theatre directors such as Antony Gormley, Rachel Whiteread, Jeremy Deller, Benjamin Zephaniah, Blake Morrison and Nicholas Hytner have signed the petition. “We’re on course to reaching our target of 10,000 signatures – nearly 8,000 people have already signed up,” said Manick Govinda. “When we have the 10,000 we will send a delegation to Downing Street to submit the petition. (Sign it here, if you haven't already)

The Home Office needs to seriously reconsider these pernicious rules, which are seriously stifling international cultural exchange.”

Notes to editors

Cristina Winsor is a 32 year old artist living in the East Village, New York, who has exhibited her work across theUSA, most recently at the New York Studio School in April, and Patton and Boggs, NYC in June.

The Meaning of Art is an international, interdisciplinary five day, free art festival. Artists from all five continents band together to dissect and reframe ‘The Meaning of Art’ through art objects, seminar discussion, video and sound art, drama workshops, music, poetry and performance. It opened on 9 September at The Foundry, 84-86 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3HY and continues until Sunday 13 September. Curated by Michael Bucknell and Annouchka Bailey: <http://www.luxurygoodslondon.com/>

The Manifesto Club launched the petition against the Home Office’s restrictions on non-EU artists and academics with a letter to the Observer on 22 February and a news story: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/22/immigration-arts-gormley> The campaign launched a report: UK ARTS AND CULTURE - CANCELLED, BY ORDER OF THE HOME OFFICE documenting 100’s of incidents where the new immigration rules have devastated arts events <http://www.manifestoclub.com/files/UKArtsCancelled.pdf>. The report was launched in a major news story in June 2009 in The Times: <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6418997.ece>

Phil Woolas MP made a public response to protests against the regulations in The Guardian’s Comment is Free:
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/14/phil-woolas-border-controls>

Further information and images contact: Manick Govinda, Artsadmin: 020 7247 5102 or 0790 535 7213,

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