During summer 2025, FUSEBOX experienced two significant flooding incidents caused by a blockage in the building above, which resulted in burst pipes and overflowing toilets.

Despite over seven months of work with our venue partners to assess the damage and plan for recovery, the venue unfortunately remains closed to all activity.

While we had initially hoped to reopen in autumn 2025, and later January 2026, the situation is still unresolved.

As a result, all commercial hires are on hold, and our programmes for communities and young people have been postponed, cancelled, or relocated. The loss of FUSEBOX has taken away the beating heart of our organisation – the space where our team, emerging artists, vulnerable communities, and partners come together to connect, create, and share. Without it, the creative engine that fuels our work has been displaced, and the opportunities it provided have been put on pause.

The loss of FUSEBOX for over 7 months is a severe blow to our small charity. The venue generates 61% of Creative Youth’s total income, had been rapidly building momentum since its 2023 launch, and was set to host over 100 creative, educational, and community activities during this period — from mindful art sessions for young people struggling with mental health, to local schools exploring heritage, to residencies for emerging artists, to a vibrant performing arts programme spotlighting underrepresented performers.

This continues to be a challenging time for our organisation, as FUSEBOX sits at the heart of our work supporting young people to access the arts, build confidence, and find community in Kingston. We remain fully committed to that mission and very much look forward to reopening in 2026.

How you can support us

Without urgent support, there is a real risk that FUSEBOX, along with all it brings to our community, will be lost.

If you’re able to support our reopening, please come along to our annual Gala Dinner fundraiser on 22 April 2026. Tickets are now on sale and every ticket makes such a difference to the charity.

We began the year with a fantastic range of creative programmes, welcoming young people and the local community into our space to experience new artistic opportunities. FUSEBOX continued to grow, hosting new and returning clients for events and creative projects. Thank you to everyone who supported and used FUSEBOX from January to June – your engagement reflects the growing strength of our community, even against the challenging backdrop for the arts and charity sectors.

FUSEBOX Highlights

Our Spring programme brought FUSEBOX to life with events such as Bad Clowns & Good Friends, an evening with Thames Jazz Orchestra, and Kingston Undercurrents. Our Creative Talent Programme artists showcased their work through Oscar Rodrigues’ performance and Joshua Hester’s Well Books exhibition. We also partnered with Kingston First for the Kingston Light Trail, welcoming many local families.

Our exhibition programme flourished with Underworld, Moonlight, and Kingston Young Artist, providing platforms for emerging visual artists – several of whom went on to secure solo exhibitions. Our Young Creatives played a vital role in shaping these exhibitions, contributing at every stage of the process.

Major Flooding at FUSEBOX

As many of you are aware, this summer, FUSEBOX was hit by two severe soil-water floods -one in June, just before FUSE International, and another in July. The damage was significant, forcing us to close the venue and pause activities for over six months. We’ve been working closely with partners to plan the reopening and are hopeful to welcome you back in early 2026.

FUSE International 2025

From 28 June to 6 July, Kingston once again became a vibrant hub for global youth culture. Despite reduced staff and budgets, FUSE International delivered an ambitious programme of theatre, dance, music, and cabaret, featuring artists from the UK, South Korea, Romania, Sweden, Germany, and beyond.

Highlights included The Kpop Hop – a dynamic cross-cultural street dance collaboration between Siheung City Youth Foundation, Vital Signz Dance, and Kingston College – and the World Peace Concert, performed by Seocho Philharmonia and international artists under the direction of Jong Hoon Bae. Both events drew packed audiences and glowing feedback.

Other 2025 Highlights

Mindful Art Sessions & Exhibition

Starting the year with a successful Mindful Arts exhibition in FUSEBOX, we’ve continued to have well-attended weekly Mindful Art Sessions throughout the year.

KIFF Community in Residence – FilmBox

We announced Kingston International Film Festival (KIFF) as our chosen Community in Residence organisation for 2025. We’ve been delighted to work with KIFF throughout the year to deliver FilmBox and our Markets: Ghosts, Manifestations & Visions project.
FilmBox, launched in May 2024, is a free monthly club fosters film discussions and networking, with varied sessions on Wednesday evenings for young and emerging filmmakers aged 16+.

The Marketplace of Ideas

We transformed Kingston’s Ancient Market House into a space for exchanging ideas, creativity, and stories through exhibitions and live art-making. The Marketplace of Ideas reimagined the traditional market as a space for exchange — not of goods, but of ideas, stories, and creativity. Through exhibitions, live art-making, and collaborative installations, the event explored how art can bridge Kingston’s rich heritage with its imaginative future.

Dillon Dance – Our First Associate Company

We announced our first associate company, our long-standing collaborators Dillon Dance this year. Led by Shaun Dillon, Dillon Dance represented us at Siheung Youth Festival in South Korea in October, fostering international collaboration and future partnership.

Looking ahead

As we look ahead to 2026, we’re excited about upcoming opportunities: artists can apply for our What Makes Us exhibitions until 6 Jan (Magyck, Matter, and Queer) and FUSE International 2026 until 11 Jan. While FUSEBOX remains closed for now, we’re optimistic about reopening early next year.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this challenging yet inspiring year. Here’s to a creative and connected 2026!

Apply for Matter Open Call

We invite artists to explore queerness in all its complexity – bold, beautiful, and unapologetic.

Queerness is more than identity; it is a way of seeing, being, and creating. It challenges norms, celebrates difference, and reimagines the world through radical self-expression.

What does queerness mean to you? How does it shape your practice, your perspective, your community? Whether your work is intimate or political, celebratory or confrontational, we welcome pieces that honour the spectrum of queer experience and affirm the voices that refuse to be silenced.

Apply for Queer Open Call

We want to know where you find magic in your life and how you explore it in your art.

Magic means different things to different people – from the beauty in the everyday and the world around us to fantasy, illusion, and the extraordinary – magic is an interaction with the unknown. Whether it’s through culture, folklore, rituals, community, love, or nature, magic, like art, is subjective. So we invite you to reflect on what it means to you and how it comes alive in your creative practice.

We are seeking works that capture the essence of magic in all its forms. Who does magic belong to? Where is it found? How does it shape your process? Whether your piece conjures fantastical worlds, otherworldly forms, a sense of wonder, or moments of transformation—we want to see where you find the magic in your artwork.

Apply for Magyck Open Call

From Tuesday 28 October to Saturday 1 November 2025, Kingston’s historic Ancient Market House transforms into The Marketplace of Ideas — a week-long celebration of creativity, culture, and connection, produced by Creative Youth as part of the Kingston 2025 programme.

Bringing together artists, audiences, and the local community, The Marketplace of Ideas reimagines the traditional market as a space for exchange — not of goods, but of ideas, stories, and creativity. Through exhibitions, live art-making, and collaborative installations, the event explores how art can bridge Kingston’s rich heritage with its imaginative future.

Marketplace: Traces, Manifestations & Visions Exhibition

The week opens with Marketplace: Traces, Manifestations & Visions, an exhibition showcasing the work of emerging artists aged 16–30.

Each piece responds to the themes of traces, manifestations, and visions — exploring how marketplaces hold memories of the past, reflect the present, and imagine futures still to come.

Hosted in Kingston’s Ancient Market House, the exhibition features a diverse range of visual artworks, from painting and sculpture to digital media and installation. Together, they create a vibrant dialogue between time, place, and identity — reflecting the global and local significance of marketplaces as spaces of gathering and exchange.

The Marketplace of Ideas – Saturday 1 November

The week culminates in a one-day interactive event, The Marketplace of Ideas, where visitors are invited to take part in a playful reimagining of trade and creativity.

Each visitor will receive a “ticket” featuring a theme inspired by Kingston’s market heritage, which they can exchange with one of eight young artists for a small, original artwork created on the spot. These mini works can then be swapped, traded, or added to a communal Memory Board, forming a living installation shaped by the creativity of everyone involved.

This free event celebrates collaboration over commerce, inviting audiences to experience creativity as a shared act of imagination and community building.

Creativity, Resilience and Recovery

The Marketplace of Ideas marks a moment of resilience and renewal for Creative Youth. Following two severe floods that temporarily closed FUSEBOX, our flagship venue, we’ve continued to deliver artistic programmes in new spaces across Kingston.

This event keeps the spirit of FUSEBOX alive — offering a platform for young artists and reaffirming our mission to create futures through the arts. We look forward to welcoming audiences back to FUSEBOX in 2026, as we rebuild and restore our home for creativity.

Event Details

📍 Location: Kingston’s Ancient Market House, Market Place, KT1 1JS

📅 Dates: Tuesday 28 October – Saturday 1 November 2025

🕒 Exhibition Hours: 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

🎨 Live Marketplace Event: Saturday 1 November, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM

About Kingston 2025

The Marketplace of Ideas forms part of Kingston 2025: A Year of Celebrating Culture, a borough-wide programme marking the 1100th anniversary of King Athelstan’s crowning. Supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, Kingston 2025 connects heritage, creativity, and community through events across the borough.

Join Us

Come explore, exchange, and imagine in the heart of Kingston’s marketplace.

Find out more and support FUSEBOX’s recovery at creativeyouthcharity.org/fusebox.

📸 Follow us: @creativeyouthuk | @fuseboxkingston

As many of you will be aware, on 17 June FUSEBOX suffered a major flood due to a blockage in the building above, which caused our pipes to burst and toilets to overflow. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been working closely with venue partners to understand the extent of the damage and plan the recovery. Unfortunately, a second incident occurred on 15 July, and the building was once again flooded with wastewater.

This bittersweet news comes off the back of a brilliant FUSE International with companies from around the world coming together to share their work.

Thank you for bearing with us as we work with partners to rise to these new challenges and identify next steps forwards. All events in the immediate future have been cancelled and hirers have been contacted. It has become clear that there’s a more serious issue with the surrounding drainage infrastructure, and we are anticipating a recovery timeline of several months rather than weeks.

We hope to reopen in Autumn 2025. If you’d like to contribute to our recovery, any donations are gratefully received at this difficult time and makes the world of difference to our team.

Thank you to everyone who was part of FUSE 2025!

From the performers and chaperones, to the audiences, technicians and volunteers, FUSE saw an inspiring range of shows and activities coming to Kingston across the 9-day festival this summer.

International highlights

We continued to foster significant international collaborations, with 2025 highlights including:

• The Kpop Hop: A high-energy cross-cultural street dance performance linking Siheung City Youth Foundation (South Korea), Vital Signz Dance and Kingston College. This event was preceded by the signing of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with Siheung City Youth Foundation.

• Cross-cultural dance workshop: A day of exchange between UK dancers and visiting Korean artists, documented in a short film.
Watch the video celebrating the collaboration

• Future plans: Creative Youth has been invited to contribute to Siheung City Youth Day in October 2025, continuing to build international links.

• Returning international artists: Bucharest’s 2024 festival favourites returned with a bold neon-soaked 1980s reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Pre-flood FUSEBOX plans

FUSEBOX was due to act the heart of the festival – the home of fringe shows and a social space for artists, volunteers and audiences. Losing this hub was a key challenge for us, and is something will return to next year. Additionally, this reduced key earned income such as Bar Income; making our achievements in exceeding targets even more demonstrable.

Activity we planned to deliver during FUSE:

• Magyk Open Call Exhibition, funded by Arts Council England and curated by Young Creatives
• Fringe shows including a cabaret show by Karma Obscura, returning favourites from FUSE International and FUSEBOX Festive Programme.
• Solo exhibition by emerging international artist Caroline Lacoma, entitled ‘The Making of a Woman’.

Audience feedback

“The festival was great. I really enjoyed the variety of different performances available and the vibrant atmosphere.”

“I love FUSE international. I love the idea of it, I love the execution and every year I think I must see more next year.”

“Overall it was a lovely experience, well organised, and a beautiful space to watch it”

• Major flooding hits Creative Youth’s festival venue FUSEBOX a week before festival launch
• The UK’s biggest multi-arts festival for performers aged under 30 returns to Kingston Upon Thames despite challenges faced by flood
• Creative Youth will present over 25 events across theatre, dance, music and comedy between 28 June – 6 July 2025
• Several events will be presented by international companies or have international participants

One of the UK’s leading festivals for emerging creative talent, FUSE International returns to Kingston this summer with a bold, international programme of performance, visual art and innovation — all created by artists aged 5–30.

Running 28 June – 6 July, the 2025 edition transforms Kingston into a vibrant hub of global youth culture, showcasing fresh, original work across theatre, dance, comedy, cabaret, music, visual arts and more. From groundbreaking new plays to daring choreography and genre-defying music, FUSE is a launchpad for the artists of tomorrow — with participants from across the UK, Korea, Sweden and beyond.

Presented by youth arts charity Creative Youth, FUSE International champions fearless storytelling, experimentation, and connection at a time when many young voices feel pushed to the margins.

“FUSE International is where the world’s next great artists take centre stage,” says Artistic Director Petra Jane Tauscher. “It’s a space for risk-taking, innovation and joy – a place where young voices are not only heard but celebrated. This festival is about more than just entertainment – it’s about nurturing innovation and creating space for global connection through the arts at a time when the world feels closed off to many young people.”

 

International Highlights

This year’s programme features several international collaborations, including:

• The Kpop Hop (29 June) – A high-energy celebration of street dance and cultural exchange between the UK and South Korea, bringing together dancers from Siheung City Youth Foundation, Vital Signz Dance and Kingston College.
• The World Peace Concert (4 July) – An unforgettable evening of classical, musical theatre and jazz-pop from the Seocho Philharmonia, ARKO Ensemble, and guest world-renowned Korean artists, led by acclaimed conductor Jong Hoon Bae.
• 2024 festival favourites from Bucharest returning with a bold adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream reimagined through the neon -soaked lens of the 1980s.

FUSEBOX Flooding: A Sudden Blow Just Days Before Launch

In a devastating turn, Creative Youth’s venue FUSEBOX — the beating heart of the upcoming FUSE International festival— was flooded this week, just over a week before opening night. A blocked pipe above the space caused seals to burst and toilets to overflow, forcing event cancellations and putting vital fringe shows at risk.  While the core festival will go ahead at the Rose Theatre and ACT Theatre, the flooding has dealt a significant financial blow to the charity and disrupted months of planning.

“FUSEBOX has become a vital creative space for young people in Kingston and beyond. We urgently need community support to help us recover and keep these platforms alive,” says Archie O’Neill and Daniel Cartlidge, Co-Directors of Creative Youth.

The festival offers young people from around the world a safe platform to push creative boundaries and find their voice. The Kingston charity, which champions young people in the arts, is urgently calling for support — especially for its fringe shows.

FUSE International 2025 runs from 28 June – 6 July with performances and events taking place at the Rose Theatre and ACT Theatres in Kingston.

Tickets and the full programme are available here

Artists are invited to submit 2D or 3D creative work of any medium. An exhibition of shortlisted works in the Kingston Young Artists competition is shown at FUSEBOX during Kingston Open Studios in June each year.

2025 marks the second year of the KYA Competition and we hope to run it again in 2027.

Prize winners for 2025

Winner’s Prize:
Rhys Malpeli – Man made

Public Vote:
Veronika Wielach – Yarn Over

Highly Commended:
Wahid Dayan Mobinzai – Webwalk

Exhibiting artists in 2025

• Veronika Wielach
• Sonia White
• Quail Wang
• Jadie Maitland
• Liv Harris
• Denis Colebourne
• Clarissa Kumala
• Alina Limbu
• Lily Frances Peake
• Wahid Dayan Mobinzai
• Fia Cavozzi
• Rhys Malpeli
• Karin Boroumandnia
• Puikeih Lam
• Soumya Agarwal
• Tania Pourashraf
• Liberty Croft

About KAOS
Founded in 2010 KAOS are a voluntary group of around 80 artists based in and around Kingston. In addition to Open Studios, they hold exhibitions throughout the year at venues in the UK and abroad. Their aim is to raise awareness of the visual arts in the community. Visit the KAOS website to find out more

What are the Open Studios?
Open Studios in Kingston is a collaborative public exhibition whereby local artists and makers open their own homes or studios to the public and exhibit their work.

The Open Studio venues are organised into art trails in and around Kingston, featuring a wide range of 2D and 3D work – painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, jewellery, ceramics, glass, photography, digital art, textiles, paper art and mixed media.

This is a perfect opportunity to meet local creators, see their work, talk to them about their techniques and inspirations and buy affordable art direct from the artist.