Soul City Arts (SCA) is committed to developing innovative work with a vision of ‘transforming society through creativity’. We create high quality programmes that bring people together to explore commonalities and shared narratives.

Our work is characterised by deep visual spectacles often set within an immersive environment. Founder of SCA, Mohammed Ali, speaks of taking an approach of ‘cinematic storytelling’.

SCA brings together diverse communities using the arts as a platform to celebrate our hybrid identities. We capture stories and themes that are unique to individuals, but
which also bind us together.

Over the past 20 years, using various disciplines of artforms, the organisation has delivered distinct work that celebrates excellence using a high visual aesthetic.

Much of this work has been delivered in venues and spaces, both nationally and internationally, but also prides itself on being grounded in the local area of Sparkbrook, Birmingham, where it operates much of its programme from.

These are examples of the different types of programmes delivered:

Installations, performances, immersive dining, film festival and cinema club, listening sessions and live music, conversations and debates, projection mapping in outdoor spaces and outdoor art festivals

SCA has operated out of community buildings over the past 15 years. It is now firmly settled within a 4000sq ft warehouse on the edge of the city centre. The area has very little arts infrastructure and SCA is committed to addressing this through their space.

Mohammed Ali speaks of Port Hope being a ‘different kind of speakeasy’ where art and hospitality lie hidden within an industrial estate in the residential backstreets of
Sparkbrook.

SCA are piloting SCA Academy – a programme of teaching for emerging creatives over a period of one week. It will take place at Port Hope – a warehouse space based in Sparkbrook , Birmingham.

The aim is to teach the ‘Soul City Arts way’ which is about placing the community, along with social justice and equality, at the hear t of the work they do.

They aim to share their approach in using the arts for bringing about change, whether that be locally or globally. Highlighting issues that are relevant to surrounding communities, SCA strive to embed rich and high quality aesthetics into the art they create.

SCA want to teach emerging creatives that are keen to extend their skills, but also wish to develop their understanding of how art can be used to address important social issues. This can be delivered to a range of organisations and institutions from schools to universities and community organisations to corporate entities.

Our programme can be delivered in our purpose-built studio in Sparkbrook, alternatively can be delivered at host organisations.

This component is about creating videos that are not only visually appealing but also meaningful and informative. It involves combining elements like graphics, text, and
animation to enhance the visual storytelling.

It will include the following:

– Identifying themes that communicates meaningful content

– Storyboarding / establishing a shot list

– Shooting basic video content using phones/cameras

– Editing using Capcut / Premiere – Effects and titling post-editing

This element of the course provides students with an opportunity to re-imagine the places where they live by building virtual 3D worlds. Billboards and digital screens will populate this re-imagined urban landscape of the future. This part of the course will be supported by ‘Robocode’ – a Birmingham based gaming development agency.

This will include:

– Modelling a world using Blender and Unity Engine

– Base the world on real-life environments from Birmingham

– Incorporate the street-art and videos created earlier in the program into this designed world

-Render ouput as a video walkthrough as well as within VR content