Next Gen Creatives

Are you 18-25, living in City of London or Islington and not in education, employment or training? Are you interested in finding out more about creative careers?

This three-week placement between 11–29 Nov will provide paid work experience at London Museum.

The deadline for applications is midnight, Sun 13 Oct 2024.

Applications have now closed.

In February 2024, we launched Next Gen Creatives to support young people living in the City of London or Islington in getting skills, training and experience to help them get paid work in the museum and creative sector.

Working with Islington Council, local job centres, and our creative partner, Fortune Favours Productions, we invited six young Londoners aged 18–24 years old to join us for a two-week paid work placement finishing in a showcase of their work at our annual community celebration event.

The Next Gen Creatives took part in skills training workshops that included film, photography and planning for creative projects. They also met with staff from various departments across the museum and visited our sites in Smithfield and Docklands.

Inspired by their time on the programme, the Creatives each designed, planned and delivered their own individual projects with a creative visual outcome.

Angie’s project, There’s no place like home, began with a stack of newspapers from her home county, Yorkshire. She was interested in exploring her heritage – having been born in Yorkshire but now living in London – through the lens of working-class history and protest.

Angie already had a keen interest in war poetry and so created her own poem inspired by her lived experience and research into the miners' strikes in Yorkshire and poll tax riots in London. She performed her poem at our annual community celebration to 150 people.      

Brooklyn had already been experimenting with printing before joining us as a Next Gen Creative and wanted to use this time to develop his business further and too start building his brand.

Brooklyn met with our Head of Design to brainstorm brand names and logos, landing on New World. Brooklyn then developed his brand and logo to create a new line of printed t-shirts and tracksuits.  

George is a creative who has studied art and design and likes drawing and sculpture. He is passionate about history and architecture because of his travels seeing different cultures and buildings around the world.

After a visit to the new London Museum and seeing the view over Smithfield, George was interested in comparing London’s past and present architectural skyline.

George used colour and shading to show how London buildings and skyline had changed over time, with a series of drawings Eye of Ages: A time comparison of London.

Hassan is an art and fashion enthusiast with a background in photography and design, who was also the recipient of the Camden Young Creatives Award. 

Hassan was inspired by the new London Museum and wanted to create a space that was intimate but enabled visitors to feel a sense of connection. This led him to a concept of a listening booth where visitors could hear recordings of Londoners.

Hhe conducted interviews with Londoners about their experiences of the city, then edited and produced a film which screened at the community celebration.

Nailah has a drive to promote societal and technological advancements, with a keen interest in mechanical engineering and sustainable transformation. She was a leading member of her school’s award-winning debate team and is passionate about public speaking.  

Nailah took the opportunity to learn some new creative art skills during her project and experimented with crafting and paper mache to create her final piece. Mind The Gap was a visual representation of contrasting perceptions of London.

In a city where 1 in 50 people are homeless and 25% of the population live in poverty, Nailah’s display aimed to show London's inequality.

Sonia is from Ukraine and has a BA in film. She also worked as a set runner in Kyiv, but had to leave because of the war. She is now in London and despite her circumstances, wants to continue being creative and doing what she loves. 

Sonia was interested in documenting where people hang out in London. She was fascinated by chicken shops and wanted to explore the interactions that took place there.

Sonia took the opportunity to learn new film photography skills and worked with a film camera to capture some of these moments. Finally, she selected these images to create her own zine.

Next Gen Creatives is supported by a grant from the City of London’s CIL Neighbourhood Fund and Arts Council England.