Common Ground is an artist residency programme where 7 artists are chosen to work in different SEN schools under the Birmingham Special Schools Co-operative Trust. The residencies led up to a joint exhibition of student work from all the schools in June 2024. The purpose of this residency is to enrich the lives of young people with SEN, who may have life limiting conditions and do not usually get access to creative activities.

Under this project I had a 10 week residency at Wilson Stuart School where we created lanterns, photo frames, rain-sticks and kotis (jackets). The students had varied disabilities and medical needs, so activities were tailored to the groups I was working with.

The demographic of the school is largely Muslim, and my residency fell over Eid, so we ended our sessions with an ‘Eid for Everyone’ event at the school. We created a living room setting for the students to celebrate, dance, make music and dress up. As a part of this celebration I commissioned Qawwali musician Zoya Ahmed and Bollywood dancer Janvi Shah to lead sessions with the students. We also had a sensory kitchen with flour, dough and chai spices.

This Eid event was replicated at the Midlands Arts Centre in June 2024 for the general public, in addition to student artwork being exhibited in the space.

I also designed the website for Common Ground which can be seen here: www.commongroundarts.co.uk