Young Associates is a new strand of Whitechapel Gallery’s youth programme, launched to coincide with the Gallery’s 125th anniversary year in 2026-27.
Over a year-long period, five alumni of the Gallery’s youth programme will be supported to shape and develop their own creative practice through 1:1 mentorship with Whitechapel Gallery staff, a series of exploratory workshops, and paid freelance opportunities aiming to build skills, insight and connections across the visual art sector.
Underscored by a curriculum developed in collaboration with artist Meera Shakti Osborne, Young Associates extends the ethos of the Gallery’s long-running Duchamp & Sons youth collective by considering how open, experimental, and collaborative approaches foster ideal environments for us to connect with our creative and critical voices.
Get to know our inaugural cohort of Young Associates for March 2026 – February 2027.
Akraam is a conceptual artist using texture, composition, scale, and innovative processes to tell stories or evoke introspection through found materials and wearable canvases. Alongside his studio practice, he produces workshop-led events that challenge exclusion in the arts and empower underrepresented communities to see creativity as their own.
Bhav is a creative and community producer working across culture, music, arts and immersive experiences. Using a mixed skillset including sewing, upcycling, cooking and event production, her practice transforms spaces into playful, immersive environments that encourage connection, belonging, curiosity and agency through shared creative experiences.
Shannay is a multi-disciplinary artist and creative with a focus on photography, creative producing, and community support work. She is interested in all things community, culture and surrealism. The aim with most of her work is to tell forgotten stories, create awareness and document different facets of the human experience.
Heather Shaw is an artist based in Lewisham. They take pride in practicing analogue animation, create snippets of human interactions that examine the tension in capturing repetitive mechanical movements using a repetitive medium. Returning to Southeast London for their studies having partly grown up there, Heather feels the urgency of creating projects that genuinely serve the community.
Sabiha is just about to graduate from a Foundation Diploma at UAL and undertake a gap year. She hopes to use this time to connect with like-minded creatives and expand her creative practice and voice. She is currently focused on developing her skills in a practical manner through gaining experience in the arts industry before moving onto a degree.
Young Associates is open to alumni of Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective Duchamp & Sons aged 18-30. It’s ideally suited to those:
Applications for Young Associates 2026 closed in February 2026.
This programme begins in March 2026 and runs for one year. Some key moments in the schedule include:
February 2026: Recruitment of Young Associates
March 2026: Young Associates matched with a mentor, as part of six-month long mentorship consisting of monthly 1:1s running April – September.
April – July 2026: Exploratory workshops focused on building your creative practice
July – September 2026: Paid freelance opportunities as part of Backyard Biennial – a new collaborative, cross-venue arts festival, celebrating the East End
October 2026 – February 2027: The content of the final few months of the programme will be developed in collaboration with the cohort.
The programme is focused on providing support for you to develop your creative practice through mentorships, workshops, and paid freelance work opportunities.
Through dedicated mentorship sessions you’ll get the chance to work 1:1 with a current arts professional working at Whitechapel Gallery to develop and work towards a goal of yours.
Through monthly workshops you’ll spend time building your facilitation skills and knowledge of and approach to inclusive and reflective practice, as well as experimenting with what you’d like your creative practice and career to look and feel like.
Through paid freelance opportunities you’ll gain experience in supporting various activities including programming, events, evaluation, communications and more.
You’ll also get the opportunity to shape the programme to align with your interests and needs.
This programme has been designed as a progression route for young people who have previously been part of our youth collective, Duchamp & Sons.
If you’re aged 15-24 and want to find out more about Duchamp & Sons and how to get involved in the future? Head here.
This is a pilot programme and may in future be expanded to a wider audience.
Meera Shakti Osborne is an art practitioner and youth worker from London. Their practice engages with accessibility and confidence building in both formal education settings and casual encounters. In recent years Meera has focused on questions around safety, history making, the ethics of collaboration and processes that allow for flexing, glitches and love.
Meera has worked with Whitechapel Gallery, Stuart Hall Library/iniva, Southbank Centre, Reprezent FM, Queercircle, Peckham Platform, Newbridge Project, Nottingham Contemporary, Glasgow Zine Library, The Gap Arts Project, Focal Point Gallery, Drawing Room and they are a visiting lecturer at UAL.
