The Young British Artists were a group of artists who performed exhibits together, starting in 1988 and lasting through the 1990s. Some notable members were Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Angus Fairhurst, and Michael Landy. Damien Hirst first organized an exhibition called Freeze in 1988, which featured art from students at Goldsmiths College of Art. The Young British Artists oftened used unconventional or unique items within their art. As an example, Damien Hirst used preserved dead animals for his pieces. 

This relates to Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go because all of the children attend what appears to be a private school that values the arts. The Young British Artists were unconventional artists, and had their own exhibitions or "galleries" that the children are often taught about in Kazuo Ishiguro's novel. As he lives in The United Kingdom, it would be unsurprising for Ishiguro to have heard of the Young British Artists as they were a popular group of artists from the 1990s who went far beyond tradition in order to create. There may have been a value in unconventional art, and because of this, perhaps with time, the children at Hailsham will grow into creating unconventional art. 

Sources:

Puffin11uk. "Myth, Damien Hirst." Flickr, 2 Oct, 2011, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nigelhomer/6214572655/in/photostream/. Accessed 12 April, 2025. 

"Young British Artists (YBAS)" Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/y/young-british-artists-ybas.