What’s On At The Inaugural Hackney Art Week?

The very first edition of Hackney Art Week will launch next week (12–22 June). Here’s everything you need to know.

Hackney Art Week 2025: Where, When & What To Expect

Hackney Art Week is a new-for-2025 community celebration of art, culture and local creativity launching in East London this month. Open to locals and visitors alike, we can expect to see galleries, retailers, cafes, pubs and other venues shine a spotlight on art in its multifaceted forms, from public art to exhibitions, film screenings to performances, talks to community-led events.

That idea of community is right at the heart of the inaugural edition of Hackney Art Week, which is running with the theme ‘Reimagining Local’. It’s a pertinent question in modern London, a multi-layered city where born-and-bred Londoners, expats and people from across the country live side-by-side. East London creatives will respond to the theme across a series of exhibitions, walking tours and pop-up events, while local venues will be open late for special events, drinks and performances.

Bathtub by Yi Miao Shih (2025)

When & Where?

Hackney Art Week will run from Thursday 12 June to Sunday 22 June 2025 across the London borough of Hackney, including areas like Hackney Central, Dalston, Stoke Newington, London Fields, Clapton and De Beauvoir.

Specific venues include: Wilton Way Gallery, On the Square, Fran’s, Mad Atelier, The Scolt Head, The Clarence Tavern, Retrouvé, Abney Park Café, Canal Boat Contemporary, The Cannery, Ombra, Forno London, Mackintosh Lane and Numbers Winery.

Katie King

What’s On?

At the heart of Hackney Art Week is On The Square, a residential design house in De Beauvoir that will host a mix of performances, installations and participatory works reflecting the  borough’s vibrant creative community. Participating artists include Tomoyo Tsurumi, Eva the Weaver. J Hill Standard and Tshylike, while highlight events include:

• Collective Pulse: a durational sound and movement piece choreographed by community dancers
• Banner Bureau: an open workshop inviting visitors to create protest-style banners on themes of care, resistance, and joy, led by Hackney textile artists
• Public Crits: an experimental platform where emerging artists can share a work-in-progress and invite open feedback, facilitated by guest curators and peers.

Elsewhere, Wilton Way Gallery will present multidisciplinary artist YiMiao Shih, known for her sharp wit and commentary on social and political issues across drawing, embroidery, zines and animation. Mad Atelier will present vibrant artist Lucy Muss, while Numbers Winery will showcase Rosanna Dean’s oil paintings, performance art and sound investigating the intersections of religious iconography, myth, and the human body. Over at Fran’s, emerging artist Katie King will transform the space into a site of reflection, myth and material memory drawing from ritual, folklore and environmental grief.

Stay up to date and see the full line-up of Hackney Art Week events on Instagram @HackneyArtWeek