Young people aged 16 to 24 living across Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, and Waltham Forest are being offered a unique opportunity to directly influence the identity and programming of East London’s newest cultural landmarks. V&A East has officially announced the launch of the next cohort for its Youth Collective, inviting passionate, creative, and curious individuals to step forward and help redefine what a modern museum and collection space should look, feel, and sound like for the younger generation.
Applications for the prestigious eight-month programme are scheduled to open on Friday, October 16, 2026, with the application link going live on the official V&A East website on that day. Aspiring applicants have until Sunday, November 1, 2026, at 11:59 pm to submit their details and make their voices heard within their local communities.
The initiative is designed to build a dedicated team of young East Londoners who will work collaboratively alongside the V&A East staff team and commissioned creative practitioners. The overarching goal is to ensure that the newly established V&A East Museum and V&A Storehouse become genuinely welcoming, inspiring, and culturally relevant spaces for the youth of East London. Organisers are encouraging anyone with distinct ideas, strong opinions, or a desire to drive positive community change to apply and become part of this ongoing cultural transformation.
The Youth Collective programme promises a deeply immersive and hands-on experience. Over the course of the eight-month project, participants will engage in collaborative creative workshops and field trips led by professional practitioners. These sessions are structured to give young people a tangible influence over how V&A East welcomes its visitors, connects with surrounding neighbourhoods, and reflects the authentic lived experiences of youth in the area. Beyond shaping the museum environment, members can expect to forge new friendships, refine their creative skill sets, and gain invaluable behind-the-scenes insights into potential careers within the wider cultural and heritage sector.
The upcoming cohort will build directly upon the core themes explored by previous Youth Collective groups. Past discussions focused heavily on concepts such as identity, memory, and belonging, alongside broader societal topics like place, access, and decolonisation. To tie these complex themes together, the new cohort will be invited to collaboratively explore and determine how the institution can effectively embed creative wellbeing and genuine care for young audiences into its daily spaces and operations. This collaborative effort will culminate in the production of a distinct creative output, which will be made publicly available to future museum visitors and the wider public.
Designed to be a dynamic learning exchange rather than a traditional educational course, the Youth Collective programme will remain flexible, allowing the interests and themes emerging from the participants to continuously guide the direction of the project. Co-production sits firmly at the heart of the initiative, ensuring that institutional staff, outside practitioners, and young participants learn from one another on an equal footing.
The time commitment involves attending 16 evening meetings held on alternating Thursdays from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. These in-person sessions will take place in East London between January and August 2027, kicking off with the first official session on Thursday, January 14, 2027, at the V&A East Storehouse. In addition to the regular Thursday evening gatherings, participants will also take part in occasional weekend activities, group trips, and dedicated days spent experiencing and working within the museum spaces.
To contextualise the scale of the project, V&A East represents a dynamic, two-part cultural destination established as a brand-new branch of the world-renowned Victoria and Albert Museum. Spanning two distinct sites in East London, the institution is dedicated to celebrating the act of making and unlocking new possibilities for creative expression. Both sites are rooted deeply in the rich heritage of East London while remaining firmly focused on amplifying the contemporary voices that lead modern culture today.
The first of these sites, the V&A East Museum based in Stratford, is designed to celebrate making and the powerful capacity of creativity to drive societal change. Created in active collaboration with young people, the museum explores the forces shaping our world through the perspectives of those driving contemporary culture forward. Meanwhile, the V&A East Storehouse, located nearby at the Stratford Waterfront, serves as a massive, publicly accessible repository housing over half a million creative works and historical collection objects. Featuring a series of large-scale collection items and carefully curated displays, the Storehouse aims to immerse visitors in a rich tapestry of narratives and stories relevant to any audience.
Organisers are specifically seeking to recruit 12 young people who accurately reflect the diverse fabric of East London. Applicants must meet the geographic criteria of residing in Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, or Waltham Forest, fall within the 16 to 24 age bracket, and possess the legal right to work in the UK in order to receive payment for their participation.
For those interested in learning more about the programme before submitting an application, V&A East is hosting a free public event on Sunday, October 18, between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm at the V&A Storehouse. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear directly from alumni of previous V&A East youth engagement programmes and field practitioners. The afternoon will feature networking opportunities, risograph printing workshops, short film screenings, and panel discussions. Further details, including specific information regarding the commissioned practitioners leading the project, are set to be published on the V&A East website alongside the opening of the application form.