Keith Khan (born 1963,

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

) is an English artist, designer and performance artist. In 1996, together with Ali Zaidi, he co-founded the arts organisation

Motiroti Motiroti was a London-based organisation which used the arts to achieve intercultural innovation. Since the mid-1990s the company made internationally acclaimed and award-winning art that transformed relationships between people, communities and ...

Life

Khan studied fine art / sculpture at

Middlesex University Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...

. Until 2004, most of the artistic events with which Khan was directly involved were under Motiroti, which produced projects such as Flying costumes, Floating Tombs (1991) which won the Time Out Dance and Performance Award; Queen's Golden Jubilee Commonwealth Celebrations (2002) and Alladeen (2004) which won th
Village Voice

OBIE Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given since 1956 by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theater artists and groups involved in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. Starting just after th ...

Special Citation, co-produced by The Builders Association. Khan departed from Moti Roti in 2004 and has filled a number of senior executive positions since then, most notably, Head of Culture and then Artistic Executive to the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

(2007 to 2009) and sitting on the panels of high-profile funding bodies, including the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predec ...

and as a Council Member of the

Arts Council of England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bo ...

. Keith Khan is also a member of the Advisory Panel of Art on the Underground and was the Costume and 3D Designer for the Opening Ceremony for th
Central and Opening Show
at the

Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millen ...

(2000); Director of Design for the

2002 Commonwealth Games The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002, were an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth held in Manchester, England, ...

ceremonies under the direction of David Zolkwer. Chief Executive of

Rich Mix Rich Mix is a charity that offers cinema and cross-arts centre that is located in the East End of London, located in Shoreditch in the Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London, England. Once a vast leather factory, 62,000-square-foot building was ...

(2004 to 2007); Chair of Diversity Group for Creative Economy Programme Working Group (2006) and has been a member of the Commonwealth Group on Culture and Development since 2009.

Controversy

Rich Mix – Khan resigned amid questions of leadership and cost controlling. Karen Bartlett wrote in The Times ""Keith was not a natural cost controller, but the board was also weak". Overstaffing, disputes between builders and architects with some funders temporarily withholding revenue in 2007 until a new business plan could be agreed. Khan did not want to comment on Rich Mix for this article." London 2012 – While in his role as Head of Culture, Khan was criticised by some commentators for being excessively "anti-elitist". He was commended by others for trying to make the Arts more relevant to young people across the UK. His departure in 2008 was greeted with relief by some in the press and concern by others. The response of Richard Brooks in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

was "Thank goodness... Keith Khan, its artistic executive, is leaving.".

Interviews

Review of the theatre piece "A midsummer night dream" with Keith Khan
for the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

Interview with Keith Khan on Culture and Diversity from the 2009 Commonwealth People's ForumInterview with Keith Khan for the Trinidad & Tobago Express entitled "The time is right for the Caribbean region..."

Talks

"Culture as Catalyst" talk, Ministry of Tourism, Trinidad & Tobago, October 2009

Monitoring Scenography 3: "Olympic Scenography – The Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games", October 2009

* ttp://www.culture.info/inter-speakers Intercultural Cities Conference, May 2008
"Leading Voices" talk on cultural diversity and the art of making creative cities, Australia Council for the Arts, 10 April 2008

* ttp://lecturelist.org/content/view_lecture/529 No Man's Land: Exploring South Asianness, May 2004re

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References

External links

MotirotiRich MixAkademiLondon Organising Committee for the Olympic GamesKeith Khan Associates
{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Keith 1963 births Alumni of Middlesex University English costume designers Living people English people of Trinidad and Tobago descent 2012 Cultural Olympiad