Young Producers
The Young Producers are a group 18-25 year-olds connected the local area of the Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham or Westminster. They get paid experience to co-produce an experience for young people for the Great Exhibition Road Festival, using art to explore a new theme each year. In 2027, the theme will be on the heritage and origins of the Festival.
The Young Producers is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to engage young people with science, heritage and art.
What will the Young Producers be doing in 2027?
In the 2027 programme, the Young Producers will work with an artist and a heritage researcher to explore and decolonise the history of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the origin of South Kensington’s status as a cultural district, as well as the Great Exhibition Road Festival itself.
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851 (commonly referred to as the Great Exhibition) showcased Britain’s industrial power, wealth and empire, and its displays presented Britain as a superior industrial leader. Steam engines, boats, furniture, medicines, stuffed animals, whole trees and even a prototype of a robot were displayed. However, these exhibits didn’t acknowledge the people and communities from the colonies behind them, who were also an important part of this progress. Instead, the Great Exhibition depicted the colonies as underdeveloped and valuable only for resource extraction.
The Great Exhibition’s profits were used to establish many of the cultural institutions based in South Kensington (universities, museums, art colleges, institutes), to ensure the UK led in cultural, scientific and artistic development.
The Young Producers 2027 programme will focus on addressing this complex heritage, uncovering the stories from people and communities who helped forge British ingenuity and innovation, yet were mistreated and misrepresented at the Great Exhibition. The Young Producers will produce a creative art installation to present these stories at the Festival (19-20 June 2027).
Explore previous years through pictures:
