In 2011, Piper reunited with two other ex-members of The Blk Group, Marlene Smith and Claudette Johnson to form the ‘Blk Art Group Research Project’. Taking a renewed examination of the archives and historical legacies of the Blk Art group as it’s starting point, this research project was set up to promote debate and scholarly enquiry into what had become know as the British ‘Black Art Movement’ of the 1980s.

This Research Group staged two major projects in 2012. The first was a symposium coinciding with a retrospective exhibition entitled ‘The Blk Art Group’ held at the Graves Gallery, Sheffield. The second was an international conference entitled ‘Reframing the Moment; Legacies of the 1982 Blk Art Group Conference’ held on Saturday 27th October 2012. This was thirty years almost to the day after ‘The First National Black Art Convention’ was held in the same institution in October 1982.

The keynote address for this conference was delivered by Professor Kobena Mercer. Entitled ‘Perforations’ Mercer’s paper worked to map the Blk Art Group into a diasporic model of art history by looking at 'translations' of the US Black Arts Movement ideas and the prevalence of a cut-and-mix aesthetic. Mercer’s account exists as one of the most detailed and analytical accounts of the era to date.

Chaired by Paul Goodwin and Marlene Smith, the conference also featured papers by key academics and commentators including Courtney J Martin, Anjalie Dalal-Clayton, Sonia Boyce, Rina Arya, Ella Spencer, Amna Malik, and Keith Piper. A documentary record of this event is available on the Blk Art Group Research Project website.

A sense of the ongoing conversation around the area of black art practice was conveyed through the final session of the Conference in which Respondents Lubaina Himid, David Dibosa, , Roshini Kempadoo, Shaheen Merali and Chair Paul Goodwin voice their impressions of the day.