It’s not every day that Shoreditch Town Hall transforms into a dream world curated by 112 local children—but DreamState isn’t your everyday art experience. Created by East London’s Ministry of Stories, this ambitious multi-sensory showcase fuses storytelling, architecture, and community spirit into eight immersive zones, each brimming with the wild brilliance of young minds. From edible prose to scariness scales, this surreal yet heartfelt journey is rewriting the rules of what an exhibition can be. We caught up with Rob Smith to dive into the creative vision behind DreamState and the children who made it magical.
DreamState is your most ambitious showcase yet. What inspired you to create a multi-sensory world based entirely on children’s writing?
The idea for DreamState, as with all of our programmes, came entirely from our young writers. They set all of our programme ideas based on the things they’re interested in – which are always way better than the ideas any adult would come up with for them. They’ve published books, created audio dramas and podcasts, built an escape room, and even done a professional comedy showcase. But one theme they keep coming back to is that they love to reimagine the world in their own wildly creative way. This, and taking over places they’re not supposed to!
Bringing 112 young writers’ imaginations to life is no small feat. What was the creative process behind transforming their stories into immersive rooms?
All 112 of our writers, from our 6 year olds to our 15 year olds, started with the concepts. We asked them to imagine the types of worlds they’d like to create, how their identities would be represented, how they wanted audiences to experience these worlds, the moods, themes and ideas. Our older group then curated these into the final eight themes: from a magical botanists lab, to a celebration room, or a quieter space for reflection. They also put together a DreamState manifesto to guide everyone working on the project.
They then set about writing the design brief for each room which we gave to our amazing design team to realise, before working room by room to create the written content and creative challenges you’ll uncover in each space.
From neon leopards to edible prose, DreamState sounds surreal in the best way. How did you ensure the children’s voices remained central to every design?
I love children’s world views, and the way they make sense of the world. They make the most wonderful creative leaps of imagination and connections – sometimes incredibly poignant and moving, sometimes wildly surreal. Ministry of Stories is hidden behind our very own monster shop, so it’s not really any surprise that our young writers have licence to let their imaginations go wild.
We’re big believers that there’s no limit to what young people are capable of. So by trusting their ideas, giving them agency and ownership, taking their ideas seriously and respecting them as writers – you can’t really go wrong. We’re also very lucky to have a huge base of volunteers who mentor our young people every week too – nearly 250 in total – and their job is to really actively listen, giving every young writer undivided attention. It’s an incredibly powerful thing for a young person to have someone really listen, encourage and support in a very positive and personal way.
Why did you choose Shoreditch Town Hall’s The Ditch as the setting for DreamState? What role does Shoreditch play in your creative and community vision?
Hackney, and particularly Hoxton, are so central to us as an organisation. We’re deeply rooted in our community, and our young writers all live or go to school within a 500m catchment of our writing centre on Hoxton Street. So community is really important to us. And it comes through in the programme too – we want our young people to feel proud of their identities and where they come from, and to know they have a valid and important voice that others want to hear. So working with Shoreditch Town Hall, close friends and great neighbours within our community, was the natural choice for DreamState.
You’ve worked with make:good to bring this project to life. How did that collaboration help bridge architecture, storytelling, and community spirit?
The team at make:good are simply legends. We’ve worked with them since the early days of Ministry, when they too were a Shoreditch-based organisation. Like us, they have 100% respect for young people’s creative ideas and ambitions, and love the creative challenge of bringing the wildest ideas to life. As with all of our projects, it’s key that our young people’s work is professionally produced. So working with make:good who have the design, build and a whole range of other skills to realise these ideas, but all in a way that is very focussed on people and community – they’re the dream partner.
Many of the zones reflect complex emotions like fear, nostalgia, and celebration. What did you learn about how children process and express these themes through writing?
I think I am most moved by the children’s writing about nostalgia as a way of them processing their life experiences. We used some really simple writing prompts to encourage our writers to remember and reflect. There’s a real simplicity to some of these: from a child remembering the feeling of being carried into their house by their parents, drowsy after a long drive; or someone else describing the anchoring sound of a bird they heard every morning in their home country of Colombia, and their search for the same in London. Our writers effortlessly describe these experiences that we can all connect to in some way, and in doing so they invite us to revisit our own memories and nostalgia too.
Ministry of Stories has supported over 20,000 young people in East London. How does DreamState represent the heart of your mission after 15 years of impact?
We believe in the power of young people’s ideas and imagination, and in how unlocking these things can give young people a voice to affect change. DreamState is very much the physical embodiment of this idea.
If visitors take away just one feeling or idea from DreamState, what do you hope it is—and why does that matter now more than ever?
I think it would have to be ‘Belief’. Belief in the power of the imagination; Belief in the importance of shared experiences and human connection; and Belief in the unlimited potential of our children and young people to shape a brighter future.
xxx
DreamState will be open from Monday 28 th July to Saturday 2 nd August at The Ditch, at
Shoreditch Town Hall with time slots available throughout the day.