Imagine the Future
Lemn Sissay leads a national project for over 2,300 schoolchildren to explore their hopes and dreams for the future
We’re getting ready for a significant birthday here at the Southbank Centre.
In 2026, we mark 75 years since we first opened as part of the 1951 Festival of Britain. As part of the celebrations, we’ve teamed up with over 2,300 schoolchildren, including nearly 2,000 from schools in Lambeth, and renowned poet Lemn Sissay to Imagine the Future.
In this exciting poetry project, Sissay invites schoolchildren in Years 5, 6 and 7 to create their own visual poems, drawing inspiration from the history of the Southbank Centre, and the 1951 Festival of Britain – a national exhibition and fair that celebrated innovation across arts, sciences and design in post-war Britain.
Get involved
If you’re a participating school and you’ve any questions, please get in touch with our team.
[email protected]
If you’d like to hear more about and be involved in future projects like this please sign-up to our dedicated Schools newsletter.
Imagine the Future aims to ignite a love for poetry and encourages children to express their hopes and dreams for the future through visual poetry. To help build confidence around teaching poetry in their classrooms, teachers are supported through resources and Continual Professional Development (CPD) sessions, run in collaboration with the Centre of Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE).
Each participating school will meet a poet who will run a workshop exploring visual poetry and support the children to write a collaborative poem. And a line of poetry from each participating class will be realised here at the Southbank Centre in a large-scale installation called Gift to the Future.
Each class will also have their visual poem printed in an anthology as part of our 75th anniversary celebrations. And Imagine the Future will end with all participating schools coming to celebrate their children’s work at the Southbank Centre as part of 2026’s Poetry International.
Key dates
- Fri 1 Jul: Gift to the Future installation goes on display
- Fri 10 Jul: In-person Poetry International event at the Southbank Centre
- Sun 27 Sep: Gift to the Future installation ends
Participating schools and teachers will receive a monthly newsletter from us to keep you informed on all things Imagine the Future. If you’re a participating school and you haven’t received one, please contact [email protected]
Meet the team
Lemn Sissay
Lemn Sissay is a poet, playwright, memoirist and broadcaster. A master of the spoken word, he was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympic Games, is an honorary fellow of Oxford and Cambridge colleges, winner of the 2024 Hay Festival medal for poetry, and three-time Sunday Times bestselling writer. He has performed throughout the world from The Library of Congress in The United States and the Ethiopian National Theatre in Addis Ababa to the London Palladium. His television documentaries have been nominated for Grierson, BAFTA and RTS awards. His work in radio has been nominated for Sony and Palm D’Ors.
‘The Southbank Centre is Lambeth and Lambeth is the Southbank Centre. These young poets from Lambeth schools and beyond are about to embark on something truly special with Imagine the Future, and I couldn’t be more excited to join them on this journey. When children put pen to paper to envision tomorrow, they’re not just crafting poems – they’re discovering the power of their own voices. As the Southbank Centre celebrates 75 years of inspiring creativity, these students will be writing the verses that might just shape the world.’
Lemn Sissay
Resources
The Festival of Britain
Use the 1951 Festival of Britain to explore life in the UK after the Second World War.
Exploring Visual Poetry
Discover a form of poetry that’s as much about how it looks as how it reads.
Inspiration for teachers
On Thursday 18 June (4 – 6pm) we’re hosting a free online creative session open to all London teachers participating in our current Imagine the Future project.
Run by artist Lu Williams and poet Arji Manuelpillai this session offers teachers ideas for a collaboration, creative with their class.
Upcoming event
Gift to the Future
Delivery partners
Imagine the Future is supported by Apple and produced by the Southbank Centre with Factory International and the Midlands Art Centre.