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FRAMELESS and London’s Violence Reduction Unit team up to give young people a space to write poetry inspired by art’s greatest works
What if you could step inside some of contemporary and classic art’s most famous works, and respond to those paintings through poetry? This summer at FRAMELESS, you can do just that. London’s premier immersive digital art gallery has teamed up with the London Violence Reduction Unit to encourage young people to express themselves through art, allowing young people to have free access to poetry workshops led by acclaimed spoken word artists.
Launched on 17 July 2025, FRAMELESS: Art of Expression brought a group of young people together under the tutelage of George The Poet, who also took on the exercise of performing an original piece in response to a classic work of art. The reimagined artworks were projected and animated throughout FRAMELESS’s state-of-the-art digital galleries, while each poet recited their corresponding piece. Kicking off in the ‘World Around Us’ gallery, George The Poet made the apt decision to respond to two paintings by John Atkinson Grimshaw – Reflections on The Thames and The Thames By Moonlight – which depicted London and prepared us for the voices of London’s youth.
It’s a turbulent time globally and politically, and allowing young people to express stories of where they come from, how they feel, and the kinds of paintings that evoked reactions out of them, is FRAMELESS and VRU’s way of reminding the youth of their power. The evening continued with performances of poems that explored experiences of violence in working class environments, thoughts on migration and immigrant stories, speaking up for Palestinians affected by the war, what it’s like to be a CODA and much more. The poets spanned different areas of London and a multitude of backgrounds – Nigerian, Somali, Greek and Bengali to name a few. The evening concluded in the ‘Beyond Reality’ gallery, with poets taking inspiration more surrealist paintings, from Edvard Munch’s The Scream to Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights.
The audience was completely taken with the poets’ earnesty, sincerity and unabashed exploration of prevalent themes, which were bookended by thoughts from George the Poet himself: “When you give a young person the confidence to explore their own artistic interests, it does untold things for their mental health, it has untold benefits for their confidence and their ability to express themselves,” (Guardian, 2025).
Don’t miss your chance to create your own Art of Expression piece with the workshops at FRAMELESS’ ‘Blank Canvas’ Gallery, held every Friday throughout the summer holidays from 25 July 2025. FRAMELESS and VRU invite people as young as 8-years-old to drop in to the 45-minute sessions held at 11:00, 13:00 and 15:00 – each session is free with the purchase of a FRAMELESS ticket, and operates on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Don’t just see the art, be a part of it.
Find tickets for FRAMELESS: Art of Expression here
