Forward to the Future

The Gallery
Monday 4 April – Monday 2 May 2022
Open Monday to Friday 9.30am – 5pm

A new exhibition organised by the Jack Petchey Foundation is coming to Poplar Union celebrating young people’s creative work during the pandemic. The pieces were submitted to the Foundation’s Forward to the Future competition, which asked young people to explore what the future could look like through any creative medium. 

The Forward to the Future Competition was organised by the Jack Petchey Foundation in July 2021 to celebrate the birthday of their founder, Sir Jack Petchey. To celebrate Sir Jack’s 96 years, the Foundation asked young people from across London and Essex to submit any creative piece exploring a positive vision of what life could look like in 96 years’ time, the year 2117. 

The competition received a staggering 166 entries of creative pieces spanning art, poetry, video, spoken word, sculpture and more. These entries were then shortlisted and the winners picked by a group of young people. All shortlisted entries are to be shortlisted at this public exhibition. 

The competition was won by a group at WAC Arts, a charity that works with young people to empower them with the life skills that only the arts can offer, who created the videogame Shadowtopia with the sound, visuals, story and user experience designed by young people. In second place was Maryam Ahmed for her poem 96 Years Later and in third place Mateusz Zygmunt for a visual art piece of the future.