Tottenham is full of talented people and it’s time we shouted about it. That is the impression I was left with after visiting the Tottenham Takeover exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Friday, March 28.

In recent years the area has earned a reputation as a hotbed for violent crime and social unrest, but this showcase of artistic and musical talent proved that Tottenham is much more.

Hundreds of people packed out the world’s greatest design museum in South Kensington to visit exhibits, all by Tottenham artists, which ranged from music, art, design, architecture and more.

Some of the night’s highlights included the Tottenham DJ Consortium, presented by music consultancy Theo Void, which featured Scanone, also known as Jude Greenaway, Josey Rebelle of Rinse FM and ReepsOne.

Meanwhile, the POST Artists collective gave the audience a sneak preview of their upcoming exhibition, Canalology, which is designed for Tottenham’s canals. It included a demonstration of a model version of the full-size boat they are building for Canalology, which will be powered by mechanical moving ‘swan legs’.

It wasn’t just artists that got the chance to shine on the night – community groups like the Tottenham Community Choir and the Haringey Advisory Group on Alcohol’s photography group got a chance to show off their stuff too.

And the Tottenham Tent and PencilPushers Plus provided an interactive element to the show by allowing people to add fabric to the tent’s woven structure or create a parody of the job centre through origami.

By hosting the artists in one of London’s most opulent buildings and in one of the capital’s most exclusive areas it not only showed the world that Tottenham is more than its bad reputation but it was also a declaration that Tottenham is on the up.

As for the area’s residents these artist should give them something to be proud off and should impress upon us the need to support Tottenham as it seeks to shake off the shackles of the past.