Securing acquisitions for museums and galleries is a complicated business at the best of times. Inflationary pressures, heavy demands on limited resources and restraints on what funders can provide all make the process a unique challenge to navigate. Success requires deftly balancing the expertise and creativity of curators and directors with the generosity of collectors, as well as the knowledge and assistance of colleagues in the art market.

This exhibition boldly and gracefully traces the impact of Britain’s colonial rule in South Asia on the arts, culture and society of both regions. The transfer of knowledge and culture between the East and the West has long been studied and variously vilified and celebrated. Beyond the Page contributes to these ongoing debates by focusing on miniature painting, exploring the ‘role that Britain’s incursions into South Asia played in the evolution’ of the tradition and its later revival as ‘an aesthetic and critical force’.