Chuntian Hu is the founder and director of Canal Dream CIC (CD), a London-based social entrepreneur working across art, design and social innovation. Over the past four years, she has focused on developing waterway-based arts and cultural programmes in London, using creativity as a catalyst for canal regeneration and social change. As part of a participatory approach, she lived aboard a narrowboat for 19 months, navigating London’s canals and rivers. By embedding her work and life on the water, she fosters dialogue between art, nature, community and heritage, and promotes cross-sector collaboration. Informed by her cross-cultural background, she also explores waterways as platforms for international cultural exchange.

Chuntian has grown CD from her Royal College of Art (RCA) graduation project into a dynamic organisation experienced in producing large-scale events. She founded the Canal Dream Art Festival (2023 & 2024) and has led collaborations with major festivals including the London Design Festival (LDF) and the Inland Waterways Association (IWA)’s Canalway Cavalcade (2022–2024). In 2023, she co-initiated a UK–China water-based artist exchange with Aranya Theater Festival, China’s leading seaside theatre festival.

She has built strong networks along the waterways, working with partners such as Word on the Water, Global Generation, the Floating Classroom, the IWA and the Canal & River Trust. She also bridges academia and community, leading collaborations with RCA Service Design and contributing to a forthcoming publication by the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity. Her events have involved hundreds of emerging creatives across performance, music, poetry, film and visual arts, helping them reach wider audiences—one of her live events during the LDF attracted over 700 registered visitors.

Her work has been recognised across the canal, creative, and community sectors. She is a two-time recipient of the IWA’s Marcus Boudier Trophy (2022 & 2024), a featured alumna at RCA’s 10th Anniversary of Service Design (2023), and was selected for the Women’s Enterprise Growth Programme by the School for Social Entrepreneurs, funded by the Standard Chartered Foundation. Her cross-cultural practice has been covered by media in both the UK and China, and in 2025 she was granted the UK Global Talent Visa, endorsed by Arts Council England.

Working across disciplines and cultures, Chuntian uses creativity to weave connections between people, places and possibilities.