Image: Whitechapel Gallery, London
Whitechapel Gallery will stage 'Art Futures: Spaces of Community' on 23 July 2026, bringing together artist Rehana Zaman, writer and critic K. Biswas, and spatial designer Nina Jang for a discussion on the urgent need for public and civic spaces. The talk is part of 'Art Futures', a new gallery series that examines the role of public art institutions at a time of multiple crises and invites audiences, artists, writers, academics and policy-makers to imagine alternative visions.
The event is scheduled for 6.30 to 8pm and will take place in the Assembly Room at Whitechapel Gallery, with tickets priced from £5. According to the gallery, the panel will be chaired by Whitechapel Gallery Director Gilane Tawadros. The discussion will also include audience questions and contributions. The gallery says the event is suitable for those over the age of 16 and will be recorded and filmed for the Whitechapel Gallery Archive and future online publication.
The panel is framed around three questions: why public and civic space is necessary, what conditions are needed for communities to gather, and what factors are shaping community spaces of the future. The gallery says the discussion will move from local concerns in East London to global perspectives, while also considering the role of gentrification on community spaces. The event page describes the topic as one of necessity and urgency, focused on how collective spaces support community cohesion.
Rehana Zaman is identified by the gallery as an artist working across film, performance, writing and collaborative projects. Whitechapel Gallery notes that her practice considers kinship, care and collective experience, using conversation and cooperative methods to explore intimacy, resistance and forms of social connection. K. Biswas is described by the gallery as a critic, the editor of 'Representology: The Journal of Media and Diversity', and director of Resonance FM. Nina Jang is listed as an interdisciplinary spatial designer, researcher and educator whose work engages in-between spaces of cultural practice and collective knowledge exchange.
Whitechapel Gallery also links Jang to RESOLVE Collective, Eastern Margins, the Save Soanes campaign, and the fundraising strategy group at ESEA Community Centre in Dalston. The event page adds that Jang’s work includes the recently premiered docu-narrative short film 'LINKS' (2026), made in partnership with Undercommons Collective and London Community Video Archive (LCVA), as well as a forthcoming artist residency in Rotterdam. These details situate the panel within broader conversations about collective organising, cultural infrastructure and the spaces people use to meet, learn and build communities.
'Art Futures' is described by the gallery as a major new series. The site says it looks at the role of public art institutions in a time of multiple crises and brings together audiences with specialists to think collectively about alternative futures. The series is supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Whitechapel Gallery lists its address as 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX, and notes that booking is required for the event.
