The UAL Dashboard shows that across at Chelsea specifically, 58.1% of students stated they had no religion. Of those who identified as having a religion, the three largest categories where Christian (11.7%), Prefer not to say (9.6%) and Muslim (6.1%).
The shortcomings of the data collection that UAL does around protected characteristics prevent any engagement with an intersectional analysis of these figures as each characteristic is treated as a standalone category. No analysis is possible about how much those who identify as having a religion overlap with other protected characteristics such as race and ethnicity. This creates a lack of comprehension, even institutional blindness, of where there may be layers of systematic discrimination e.g. for the black female Muslim Curating student I met at a recent opening.
I am personally interested in the ‘prefer not to say’ category. Building from my Disability blog I wonder again about non-disclosure in these contexts. The students selecting this option have chosen to identify themselves as having a religion but would ‘prefer not to say’. Why is this? Is it personal preference or the fear of institutional or peer bias? As Nicole Brown (2022) has pointed out in relation to disclosing Disability status, there is a cost-benefit analysis that is happening in these hidden moments of decision-making. There are questions to be asked here about why the cost is too high to disclose, and what the institution can do to be a space that is inclusive of faith as a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act.
Some of this hesitancy is likely driven by what is happening in the wider socio-political sphere, what Simran Jeet Singh (2025) identifies as fearmongering about religious groups by politicians to accrue power. Whilst Singh is talking about his own context in the US, similar prejudice is very evident in the Islamophobia in political discourse in the UK. A most recent example is Keir Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ speech that drew parallels with Enoch Powell (Syal 2025). This is complicated by high profile British Muslims publicly supporting Reform, such as the party’s Chair Zia Yusuf, and much of the last decade of anti-immigration rhetoric spearheaded by other prominent Muslim figures like Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.
I would speculate that another contributory factor in the ‘prefer not to say’ choice, is the paucity of attention given to religion in the wider fields of both arts academia and contemporary art practice. Whilst there is a contemporary trend (with strong art historical antecedents) towards pagan and occult expression in art practice (see Marciniak (2019), established religions as a serious area of contemporary practice and research are quite a non-sequitur. As Gilbert et al argue in an interesting study in the field of cultural geography “religion has been given little or no attention in academic discussions of vernacular creativity, while arts policy as it developed in the United Kingdom in the post-war period has had a strongly secular focus” [Gilbert et al (2018) p.1].
These observations aside, the historic oppressions, persecutions, genocides, corruptions and colonising done by established religions surely holds responsibility for the secular turn. I have my own, at times conflicted, positionality to consider here as a white person who does have a personal faith, yet is strongly LGBTQ+ inclusive and wants to actively play a part in decolonisation, and as an artist in the field of contemporary art practice.
UAL generally has a strongly secular feel, with religious holidays often the taking place without interrupting the academic calendar. An example of how this impacts students came to my attention recently, when one of my exchange students who comes from an Italian institution queried why Easter didn’t align with the UAL Spring Break, as it meant she was unable to go home to celebrate the most important holiday of her year with her Catholic family.
Another issue I have found at UAL is that the Quiet Space and Prayer Room facilities are one and the same. The designated space at Chelsea is in a small, dark and quite damp room in the basement of C-Block. It is supposed to be open but is often locked and needs a key code to access it. This one room is the place that students of faith are supposed to pray in, and the one that Disabled and Neurodivergent students are to use if they are feeling overwhelmed. I don’t think these uses are compatible and so neither group are adequately catered for.
As an action moving forwards, I am going to set up a meeting to start a dialogue with the multi-faith chaplaincy team to understand their role more, and how we can work together to support an inclusive environment for people of faith or none on the 2Y of the BA Fine Art.
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Bibliography
Akhtar, P. (2025) Zia Yusuf: The British Muslim Driving Reform’s transformation into an election winner, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/zia-yusuf-the-british-muslim-driving-reforms-transformation-into-an-election-winner-256003 (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Brown, N. (2022) Wellbeing in higher education podcast: Ableism, Dr Nicole Brown. Available at: https://www.nicole-brown.co.uk/wellbeing-podcast/ (Accessed: 23 May 2025).
Gilbert, D. et al. (2018) ‘The hidden geographies of religious creativity: Place-making and material culture in west london faith communities’, cultural geographies, 26(1), pp. 23–41. doi:10.1177/1474474018787278.
Marciniak, C. (2019) Wicked! modern art’s interest in the occult, Frieze. Available at: https://www.frieze.com/article/wicked-modern-arts-interest-occult (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Singh, S. (2025) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom, Trinity University, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Syal, R. (2025) Starmer accused of echoing far right with ‘island of strangers’ speech, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/12/keir-starmer-defends-plans-to-curb-net-migration (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
UAL Dashboard Data 24-25 (Accessed 26 May 2025)
Thank you for such a detailed post. I really appreciate the way you explore the implications of UAL’s “prefer not to say” category, and how you connect that with broader patterns of non-disclosure and institutional invisibility.
I was particularly struck by your observations on the marginalisation of religious identity, both within the curriculum and the physical spaces of the university. At LCC, we’ve encountered similar concerns around the inadequacy of the shared Quiet/Prayer space — it’s poorly located, uninviting, and ultimately fails to meet the needs of either group it’s intended to serve. In response, my team took the step of creating a dedicated, more inclusive space for students of faith within our own studio. We repurposed our tutorial room, offering it as a place where students could practise their faith during religious holiday periods, and we adopted an open-door policy so that students could use the space freely, without needing to ask or explain. Our aim was not just to provide a room, but to make a visible and meaningful commitment to recognising belief as a valid and valued aspect of identity within creative education.
Your planned dialogue with the chaplaincy team sounds like a great next step, and I’d be really interested to hear what comes from that. I also relate to your reflections on personal positionality — navigating the intersection of faith, queerness, and art practice can be complex but also enriching. Thank you again for this generous and important contribution — it has prompted me to reflect further on how institutional culture can unintentionally exclude, and what we can do to change that.
Thanks so much Antonia. I would be really interested to hear more about this initiative you have undertaken at LCC – bravo for enacting a change so directly. Perhaps we could meet in person to discuss?