It is not every day we allow our visitors to do some spray painting at Cartwright Hall but as we have Mohammed Ali’s amazing graffiti art displayed in Gallery 5 we knew we’d have to make an exception.  A group of 10 of our Young Ambassadors* came along to meet the man himself and get some tips from a graffiti expert.

The day began with a tour by Mohammed of his exhibition, Breaking Down the Wall, accompanied by a talk on his views on graffiti art. He talked about the reputation graffiti art has as being about vandalism and a lack of consideration for others property. For him it is important to express creativity whilst respecting the law.

After lunch it was time to get outside and get cracking with some spray cans. Mohammed put up a red wall against the side of his graffiti cube located outside Cartwright Hall. The group used their own stencils which were inspired by the textile collections of Bradford Museums and Galleries to create a fantastic work of art.

Thank you to all the people who contributed to the final piece and to Mohammed for his invaluable expertise. At the end of the day we all stood back proudly to admire the work we had come together as a group to create. The Young Ambassadors responded fantastically to our collection creating some beautiful designs.

The final piece of artwork is on display in our Animated room at Cartwright Hall.

This project was funded as part of Precious Cargo, Stories of the World, one of the projects for the Cultural Olympiad, London 2012.

*For more information on the Young Ambassadors see the Precious Cargo blog -http://preciouscargobradford.tumblr.com/ and https://bradfordmusgal.wpengine.com/education/young.php

Breaking Down the Wall continues at Cartwright Hall until 16 October 2011