We, The Change: Youth-Led Artivism at Brighton Festival 2025
In May 2025, our Future Creative Leaders (FCL): Fez, Sami, Lucia, Levvy, Dred and Elsa, unveiled We, The Change at the Lighthouse Project Space. A youth-led exhibition built in collaboration with partners and peers, it pulsed with innovation, social commentary, and unapologetic imagination.
From the moment you stepped inside, the atmosphere felt different. This exhibition was a living, breathing experiment: a place where art collided with activism, where questions were valued as much as answers, and where the voices of young people commanded centre stage.
Inside the Exhibition
One corner of the space invited visitors to slip on headphones at a listening station, immersing themselves in Stories from Guyana by Dred. A few steps away, you could peer into Dred’s bedroom, reimagined as the place where his artistry began. With an old TV, a CD player spinning his EP Long Story Short, and a lava lamp glowing softly, the room felt deeply personal. Posters of comics and stacks of books revealed the inspirations that fed his creativity.
Across the gallery, satire took hold - a playful yet piercing homage to Brighton, presented through familiar city icons with a socially critical lens. The sandy beach scene came littered not with joy but with cigarette butts, empty beer bottles, chip wrappers and discarded gas canisters. A branded council bin encouraged visitors to declare what they’d keep or “bin” about the city. Nearby, a Southern Water cooler gurgled with brown water, banded by hazard tape - a reference to Southern Water’s long‐standing controversies, including its repeated discharges of untreated sewage into coastal waters and storm overflows in Brighton & Hove. A postcard series depicted areas such as Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb, which are ranked the most deprived in Brighton & Hove. Others with images of homeless or unhoused people, around the city centre, under the ironic slogan “Brilliant Brighton. The heart of the city.” Far removed from Brighton’s postcard-perfect image, these scenes expose the cracks beneath the city’s glossy tourist façade. A giant Brighton Rock display flanked by inflatable cigarettes and a looming i360 model, topped off with an Argus parody reading: “SEAGULL STEALS MAN’S PENSION.” These biting, socially satirical images encouraged audiences to look more closely at the city they thought they knew, revealing the utopian seaside image versus its hidden inequalities, ecological damage, and silenced lives.
A reading area offered a softer counterpoint. With cosy sofas, shelves stacked with radical and inspirational works, and iPads holding digital reflections from the FCL, it was a space for slow reading, listening, and thought. Visitors could engage with books that amplify marginalised voices, ask hard questions, and inspire new ways of thinking.
Another corner displayed a cabinet of zines by Lucia, reflecting folklore, heritage and identity, created to document Sally Barton’s Banners by the Folk workshop that we hosted. Nearby, a table full of posters posed questions for everyone to answer: Who is Brighton for? What are you upset about? Who is art for? What future are we building? Visitors scribbled responses beneath, adding their own voices to the collective conversation.
Alongside the exhibition, two powerful events and billboards curated by our FCL deepened the programme’s impact.
EOTT: OPEN GRIME
Grime echoed through the Project Space as eott hosted a rap cypher fused with dialogue on masculinity and mental health. Five local MCs: Airz, Es Jayar, JJM, J-Kari and Timo joined Levvy to merge rhythm with reflection, bringing raw vulnerability into a traditionally guarded genre.
Dred Presents: Long Story Short – The Experience
Through images, film, and live performance, Dred invited audiences into his personal world. In conversation with Bobby Brown, he shared a journey shaped by adoption, trauma and resilience. The night radiated warmth and honesty, reminding everyone present of art’s ability to transform pain into strength.
Beyond the Gallery: Taking Change to the Streets
The vision of We, The Change didn’t stop at the walls of Lighthouse Project space. Partnering with BUILDHOLLYWOOD, our FCL carried their ideas onto Brighton’s billboards. From 7 April and until 25 April, provocative questions and bold statements challenged passers-by, turning everyday streets into a citywide canvas. For the young leaders, seeing their words magnified in public was about visibility and empowerment. It is estimated that the billboard campaign by our Future Creative Leaders will have been seen by over 850,000 members of the public.
We, The Change stood as proof of what happens when young people are given the freedom, space and trust to lead. Our Future Creative Leaders and their collaborators showcased their art; and tested how creativity can provoke, question, and ultimately shift society.
As audiences left Lighthouse Project Space, or passed by a billboard in town, the message was clear: the future is already here, and it’s being shaped by the next generation of creators, visionaries and community builders.
Read our Future Creative Leaders' personal reflections on an aspect of the programme in the digital booklet below.
Photos of the exhibition and the launch night oare also below.
Audience Feedback
“Loved it. Very inspirational and makes me energised.”
“Lighthouse provides inspirational and inclusive events that are so needed in the city.”
“Great space, so important for these initiatives to receive funding. Many young people from Brighton have gone on to have hugely successful careers thanks to things like Audio Active and Lighthouse.”
ABOUT
ABOUT BUILDHOLLYWOOD
BUILDHOLLYWOOD celebrates our magical cities, brimming with all sorts of people, lifestyles and culture. By developing street level poster space in carefully curated locations across the UK they place creativity in the heart of our cities. Built on an art school mentality that stretches back decades to their founder, they have a collection of talented agencies – DIABOLICAL, JACK and JACK ARTS who specialise in their sectors to produce street level poster campaigns, creative billboards, hand painted murals, interactive installations, ambient and unique experiential campaigns to create authentic interactions with people on the street. This combination of format, creativity and position is unique to BUILDHOLLYWOOD and is the reason why they work and collaborate with the most exciting brands, artists and creative institutions in the world. BUILDHOLLYWOOD are the creative street advertising specialists.
www.buildhollywood.co.uk | @buildhollywood
ABOUT BRIGHTON FESTIVAL
Established in 1967, Brighton Festival is the largest and most established annual curated multi-arts festival in England. Taking place over three weeks in May, the Festival is a celebration of music, theatre, dance, art, film, literature, debate, outdoor and community events in venues and locations across Brighton, Hove and Sussex.
Since 2009, Brighton Festival has attracted inspiring and internationally significant Guest Directors who bring cohesion to the artistic programme. The inaugural Guest Director was Anish Kapoor, and the post has subsequently been held by prominent cultural figures such as Kae Tempest, Lemn Sissay, Laurie Anderson and, in 2024, Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
brightonfestival.org | Instagram: @brightonfestival | Facebook: brightonfestival
ABOUT FUTURE CREATIVE LEADERS
Future Creative Leaders (FCL) is a 12-month paid programme offering young creatives from underrepresented backgrounds the opportunity to work closely with Lighthouse's leadership team to explore various aspects of creative leadership. Funded and supported by Art Fund’s ‘Reimagine Grants’ and Chalk Cliff Trust, over the year, participants will co-curate programmes, select participants for mini-residencies, and recruit their successors, all while exploring alternative governance structures, accountability, and power-sharing.
The programme partners the FCL members with Trustee Buddies, providing them with essential finance and governance training. This mentorship aims to integrate FCL more closely with Lighthouse's Board of Trustees, setting a precedent for similar organisations across the cultural sector to follow.
Throughout the year, participants will document their governance experience creatively, sharing their insights and learnings with the wider sector. The culmination of their efforts will be showcased during Brighton Festival 2025, offering a platform to highlight the impact and significance of the programme.
ABOUT ARTFUND
Art Fund is the national charity for art, helping museums and people to share in great art and culture for 120 years. Art Fund raises millions of pounds every year to help the UK’s museums, galleries and historic houses. The charity funds art, enabling the UK’s museums to buy and share exciting works, connect with their communities, and inspire the next generation. It builds audiences, with its National Art Pass opening doors to great culture. And it amplifies the museum sector through the world’s largest museum prize, Museum of the Year, and creative events that bring the UK’s museums together. Art Fund is people-powered by 135,000 members who buy a National Art Pass, and the donors, trusts and foundations who support the charity. The National Art Pass provides free or discounted entry to over 850 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and Art Quarterly magazine.
ABOUT CHALK CLIFF TRUST
The Chalk Cliff Trust is a foundation set up to provide grants and donations to charities, action groups and benevolent organisations in East Sussex.
Funders for Future Creative Leaders
We, The Change is commissioned by Brighton Festival in collaboration with Lighthouse.
