Tamworth & Lichfield College welcomed worldwide graffiti artist Mohammed Ali to inspire students with his artistic flair, in celebration of diversity month.

Diversity month celebrates people’s differences in skills, race and culture and is an annual event at the College. As part of this event, Mohammed Ali, an acclaimed graffiti artist who fuses urban graffiti with Islamic calligraphy, shared his expertise with students in order to create a piece of urban graffiti art. The aim was to produce a graffiti wall which involved as many students as possible from different walks of life to celebrate learning and knowledge and demonstrate that we can learn from each other and how we can work together.

Mohammed and the College teamed up in this unique project, which features various languages all conveying the same message. The purpose was to create a meaningful message for an educational setting. The students agreed upon the message of “knowledge”.

Mohammed Ali, lead artist of the piece, said: “There are many misconceptions surrounding graffiti art. However it is an unusual and accessible art form and a way to connect different people. Urban graffiti art is for the people, for everyone. It is spilling out of the gallery into our daily lives and onto the streets. It is our right to see it”

The grand unveiling took place on Thursday 28th February , where over 100 members of the community were invited to attend, along with Principal of the College, Ann Neville, who herself unveiled the art.

Ann Neville commented on the fusion of different cultures to create a unique art piece: “Promoting diversity is a very important part of our mission; we take every opportunity we can to foster understanding of different cultures”

The day itself was eventful with many students contributing towards the occasion in various ways. After the unveiling the celebrations moved onto the College restaurant where Catering students put on a fantastic range of international foods. Media students put together a DVD documenting the development and completion of the project, which was accompanied by a composition created by the music technology students. The whole project was managed by a selection of business students who helped create the press release, a plaque explaining the purpose of the graffiti wall and interviewed various people involved within the event.

Tamworth and Lichfield College believe that Diversity Month has been successful and achieved its aims of encouraging and educating student about different people and cultures in the world. Diversity month will be back at the college next year, hoping to be bigger and better.

Click Here to view more pictures of the Graffiti Wall.