Future Now festival launches in Sheffield

17th May 2022

Future Now Festival of Creativity launches in Sheffield this week (16 May 2022) showcasing creative work from Sheffield Hallam University’s graduating students.

The festival is Sheffield's biggest student-led exhibition and one of the biggest degree shows in the north, featuring some of the most creative work in art, design, fashion, film, architecture, and performance the city has to offer. 

Throughout May and June, exhibitions, performances and screenings will be held online and in venues across Sheffield including Kommune, Showroom Cinema, the Winter Gardens and Sheffield Hallam’s city campus.  

This year’s exhibition will be the first in person since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Curator of the exhibition and gallery manager at Sheffield Hallam University, Tim Machin, said:

“Future Now is our biggest celebration of students’ work across the creative arts. Their work presents creative solutions to real world problems, lets us glimpse into alternative realities and documents the world as they find it and how they would like it to be. 

“It’s an amazing feeling to be able to invite visitors into Sheffield to encounter new ways of understanding the world through art and design.”  

Bateman, head of department for art and design, said:

“We are delighted to launch ‘Future Now’, the Festival of Creativity, and especially as we start to climb out of the very difficult times our students and staff have worked through. 

“We have seen incredible changes take place over the last 2 years but one thing that has remained constant during this period is the outstanding work produced by Hallam students. 

“We hope people will take the opportunity to visit the festival, see the incredible array of work on show and talk to the students about their journeys.” 

Future Now brings together over 15 disciplines across art, design and humanities including jewellery and materials design, photography, product design and illustration.  

Highlights of the festival include: 

• Screenings at the Showroom Cinema of animation and film and TV students' projects in May and June
• A fashion show held at Sheffield’s Winter Gardens featuring work from Hallam’s fashion design and management students on 25 May
• Exhibitions from illustration, product design and fashion communication students held in Kommune from 18 May

A full schedule of events is available here.