A free arts festival is coming to Whitechapel Gallery
Backyard Biennial: East will run from 15 July to 6 September.
It will feature exhibitions, installations, screenings, performances and more.
Backyard Biennial: East will open for eight weeks.
Whitechapel Gallery is hosting Backyard Biennial: East, an eight-week, free, summer arts festival in collaboration with over 40 local partners in East London. Running from 15 July to 6 September, this is the first rendition of the festival. The event celebrates the creative, historic and cultural identity of the East End, and platforms diverse communities.
Backyard Biennial: East will feature exhibitions, installations, screenings, performances, workshops, residencies, walks, open studios and other special events. Audiences will be offered new ways to interact with the works, both within and beyond the gallery, while exploring the East End through varying perspectives.
As one of the most ethnically diverse areas of London, East London has seen exponential growth in recent years. It has previously had a rich history of social and political change. A hub of creativity, it is also home to artists, writers, poets, musicians, philosophers and activists. It is also an established centre of artisan craftmaking, supporting local textile and furniture industries, breweries and is further home to the historic Whitechapel Bell Foundry.
For Whitechapel Gallery’s 125th anniversary year, this project’s debut was created to reframe an arts biennial. It suggests a new model for community participation and audience engagement, continuing the gallery’s dedication to working with the local community. The Biennial will take place across a variety of local venues, such as art galleries, cultural and grassroots organisations, educational centres, places of worship and other public arenas. The programme will tell of East London’s past, present and future, from stories of migration and ecology to walking practices, music and community archives.
Highlights include Fozia Ismail’s A Song for the Xeedho – The Knot Makers. Fozia’s work is an interactive installation of rope, knots and weavings based on the endangered concept of the wedding basket. The work questions how human and non-human knowledge, memory, and survival are transmitted between Somali nomadic women across both rural and urban landscapes.
TUFAN, comes as part of a residency by OITIJ-JO Collective, a Bengali arts organisation based in East London. This programme takes inspiration from the Bangla word for storm, representing change, powerful energy, disruption, and renewal. Artist Aliaskar Abarkas’ To Re-Cite is a new sound-orientated project that explores the Qur’anic recitation of Ayat al-Kursi verse as its starting point. Abarkas will work with Muslim communities and faith spaces in workshops, practicing recitation and collective listening.
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Where: Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX
When: From 15 July to 6 September 2026
Contact: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org