Mohammed Ali / FacebookPupils in Featherstone will get the chance to graffiti the walls of their school – with full permission from their head teacher – as part of a project where they’ll work with one of the world’s leading urban artists.
Children at Whitgreave Primary School will work under the watchful eye of Mohammed Ali to create murals on two 6m-long playground walls which will promote universal positivity and cultural understanding.
Mr Ali – who has scooped a clutch of accolades for his work in New York, Dubai and Melbourne, including one from ITV’s South Bank Show – is working with the children as part of the school’s involvement in the Creative Partnerships programme organised by North Staffordshire based charity Partners in Creative Learning (PiCL).
The school in the former mining village has been encouraging the children to become cultural detectives and they have been involved in a series of initiatives to explore a raft of different cultures and religions through filmmaking, dance and now graffiti.
The murals that Mohammed and the children will create will become a lasting testimonial of the school’s cultural understanding which has involved lots of hard work by the teaching staff, pupils and the wider community.
Head teacher of The Avenue school, Caroline Jobling, said: “The work with Mohammed will enhance the ongoing work that the school is involved in, developing a lively and relevant curriculum which prepares all of our pupils for life in the 21st century.”
The school has scored a coup in having Birmingham-based Mohammed involved with their project as he is a much in demand artist whose work takes him all over the world. His clash of civilisations style – which has a fusion of street art and Islamic script, along with his conscious messages – has been praised for its messages of harmonious multiculturalism.
Mohammed said: “I love visiting different communities around the globe and painting murals that reflect their issues, but nothing beats working close to home, contributing towards raising aspirations of the very young people in the society in which I live, they are our future.”
This project will also be documented by filmmaker Harmeet Chagger Khan who has worked with pupils at the school for two years.
PiCL director Rachel Billington believes that the children will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to work with such an accomplished world-famous artist.
“Everyone at the school must be incredibly excited that Mohammed Ali is coming to work with the children to create murals which will become iconic overnight,” she said.
“The Creative Partnerships programme has underpinned so much of the creative work which has gone on at the school in the last couple of years and there’s no better symbolism of that than having a Mohammed Ali on the walls of the playground.”
PiCL is currently delivering the Creative Partnerships programme in more than 50 schools across the region. This funding stream is being withdrawn at the end of the current academic year but the charity is committed to maintaining the delivery of arts and creativity within the educational curriculum. It is actively seeking local support and sponsors.
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For more information please contact Paul Kirby at Octopus Public Relations on:
(M) 07970 961701
(E) paul@octopuspr.co.uk
