Creative Opps presents Co:Lab with Arts Against Knives

A Collective Exhibition on Inclusion, Creativity & Community Power

Date: 20.03.2025

Time: 6:30–9:00 PM

Location: Arts Against Knives, 162 High Rd, London N2 9AS

Creative Opps is proud to present Co:Lab, a new exhibition created in partnership with Arts Against Knives and developed by young creatives from the Creative Opps Membership Programme. Bringing together nine emerging artists from across the UK, Co:Lab explores what inclusion means in today’s creative landscape — and how creativity can challenge the barriers shaping access to the arts.

Co:Lab is both an artistic and activist project. Through visual art, film, sound, writing, installation, participatory works, and interactive digital experiences, these early-career artists — many showing work publicly for the first time — offer deeply personal and politically engaged reflections on belonging, identity, community, and creative empowerment.

About Co:Lab

Co:Lab emerged from the Creative Opps Membership Programme, of which they are a part of, where young people from underrepresented and marginalised backgrounds explored their creative practices while building community, confidence and leadership. The exhibition is a culmination of this shared work: a space where disabled, neurodivergent, racialised, working-class and otherwise excluded voices are centred, nurtured and made visible.

In Partnership with Arts Against Knives

Co:Lab is delivered in collaboration with Arts Against Knives (AAK), who are providing exhibition space and supporting the involvement of young people from their community programmes. AAK’s participants will gain hands-on experience across curation, installation, production and marketing, ensuring that the exhibition creates opportunities beyond the exhibiting artists themselves.

Exhibited Work

Co:Lab will feature nine artists working across disciplines, including:

● Interactive digital installations exploring hybrid identity

● Moving-image pieces rooted in lived experience and archive transformation

● Sound and composition projects with collaborative and accessible elements

● Sculpture, mixed media and visual art examining belonging and cultural heritage

● A collective zine featuring submissions from Creative Opps and AAK communities

→ Support the Exhibition

This exhibition is made possible in part through funding from FundAction, whose support enables Co:Lab to be delivered with care, accessibility and integrity. Additional contributions will help us further resource:

● Production and material costs

● Travel and accessibility provision

● Youth training, skills development and community involvement

● Exhibition documentation

● Future Exhibitions

Your support ensures that young people can create, exhibit and lead on their own terms.

→ Attend Co:Lab

Sign up to be notified when tickets go live.

Register interest: Click here docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGEMsgGp8gSGO_k2x2FpnrHo5U7LVK3gTiNIvpvtsElTILow/viewform

→ Partner With Us

We welcome collaborations with organisations committed to youth voice, access and social impact.

About Creative Opps

Creative Opps CIO was established in 2020 to give young people who have faced socio-economic disadvantage access to the tools, networks and experience needed to independently achieve their ambitions. We deliver user-led programmes from mentoring to work placements and leadership opportunities.

Values: Inclusivity, Diversity, Youth Leadership, Reflection, Innovation, Social Impact

Find Out More creativeopps.org/event/colab-a-collective-exhibition-on-inclusion/

About Arts Against Knives

Arts Against Knives creates safe, creative spaces that support young people most at risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. Through tailored creative training and holistic support, AAK empowers young people to design hopeful futures and influence real systems change.

Art Against Knives was the Barneteye Charity of the year in 2015 and we still support their work!