The Nude Gallery

The Nude Gallery is a collection of stories and objects addressing the issues of diversity and inclusion in everyday medical, educational and commercial items i.e. plasters, flesh coloured crayons, tights etc. and the impact of them having been historically made to match lighter skin tones.

We launched The Nude Gallery as a pilot Pop-Up gallery in Roehampton, South West London in October 2019 - until December 2019 engaging our visitors with guided tours, exhibition trails, workshops and children’s story time whilst providing a space for open conversations, the exchange of ideas,creativity and learning.

We welcomed hundreds of visitors including local schools, families and individuals and got some brilliant testimonials!

WHAT IS THE COLOUR "Nude" ?

HISTORY

"Nude Awakening."

Until 2015, the Merriam-Webster dictionary has defined ‘nude’ as – in addition to the standard ‘having no clothes on’ – ‘having the colour of a white person’s skin’, conforming to the narrow stereotypes of nude as a colour matching only certain types of skin.

Teenager Luis Torres was fed up of the dictionary’s narrow definition of the word ‘nude’. So he changed it.

He set up a campaign on campaign on DoSomething.org called Nude Awakening, asking people to flood Twitter and Merriam-Webster’s Facebook page with comments calling for change. Over 800 people joined in. And after only a few weeks of campaigning, Merriam-Webster listened, and decided to make their definition a little more diverse. Now, if you search their website for the definition of nude, you’ll find an important update:

‘having a color (as pale beige or tan) that matches the wearer’s skin tones’.

It might seem like a small win, but it makes a HUGE difference to how we’re defining and describing the world we live in.

‘The language we use has an enormous impact on the reality we live,’ said Luis. ‘Plus, [this] shows that even a small but mighty army of young people can create racial progress.'

Source: This teenager successfully petitioned to give ‘nude’ a more inclusive dictionary definition by Ellen Scott Tuesday 1 Sep 2015 12:29pm Metro

DEFINITION

nude (the colour)

/nju:d/

noun

a colour of clothing or make-up resembling that of the wearer's skin.

Note:

Nude was originally named after the Western-European centric Caucasian skin tone. It is close to beige in terms of being a pale shade of the mixture of brown and white.

DEFAULT

"With whiteness assumed to the default skin color, bandages, make-up and “flesh-colored” clothing labeled as "nude" excludes a wide range of skin colors."

Taryn Finley, HuffPost US

Our Mission

To raise awareness of the positive power of inclusivity and diversity.

To celebrate and collaborate with people and organisations that value inclusivity and diversity.

Inspired by...

People and organisations that aspire to be more inclusive and endeavour to share the values of diversity, inclusion and equality to humanity.

African American Dominique Apollon's viral Tweet on the first time he wore a plaster that matched his dark skin tone. He tweeted,

"It's taken me 45 trips around the sun, but for the first time in my life I know what if feels like to have a "band-aid" in my own skin tone........ For real I'm holding back tears" (@ApollonTweets)

(Dominique Apollon PHD is the vice president of research at Race Forward, a nonprofit that builds awareness for racial justice.)