Mohammed Ali: Soul City Arts

The LANS distinguished lecturer this year is Mohammed Ali, an award-winning Birmingham street-artist who uses his art to empower communities. Over two decades of work, he has created murals, art installations, live performances and more. He is a pioneer in the street-art movement whose work brings together communities divided by culture, faith, and ethnicity. By exploring challenging and complex social issues through art, he provides transformative and radical tools to counteract the challenges of a polarised society. 

Mohammed is also the founder and artistic director of Soul City Arts, an arts organisation bringing together artists, activists, academics, and communities. Soul City Arts was founded in 2008 with a vision of ‘connecting communities and transforming society through creativity’. Through running high quality events, they bring diverse communities together to build pride, civic engagement, and confidence. Soul City Arts is one of the partners of the University’s Culture Forward initiative.

The lecture will give a brief introduction to Ali’s street-art and video projections focusing on social conscious messages before engaging attendees to explore their own ‘social messaging’ in a creative activity.

(Photo source: Mohammed Ali)