community art workshops
There is something about making that unlocks what words have never been able to reach. People sit down with the simplest of materials and find out something about themselves they didn't know they were carrying. It goes deep without asking permission. It surprises everyone in the room, including me, every time.
You don't need to speak English. You don't need to have been to art school, or know anyone who has. You don't need a reason beyond showing up. Everyday materials are the only tools, because the barrier to making should be as low as possible and the experience of it as deep as possible.
Rooted in street art, designed around the people in the room, I work with schools, charities, and community organisations across the UK, because the communities that have the most to say are rarely the ones given space to say it. These workshops are that space.
What the room looks like
People who have never made anything sit next to people who have. Someone makes something they didn't expect to make. Someone says something they didn't expect to say. By the end, strangers have bonded over a shared mark, a colour they both chose, something they built together without planning to.
Art creates the conditions for connection without anyone having to announce it. That's not a side effect. That's the work.
What I bring to it
Every workshop is designed from scratch — not a template pulled off a shelf. I've worked across very different communities and contexts, and I show up ready to be surprised. The young people especially. They know far more than we give them credit for, and art gives them a way to show it.
No art experience needed. Ever.
Where I work
Schools, charities, community spaces.
I work UK-wide, in whatever space the community already uses. The workshop comes to you — designed around your programme, your people, and whatever the group needs.
Schools & youth programmes
From primary through to sixth form. I adapt to the age, the curriculum link, and the theme — whether that's brought to me or built together.
Charities & support organisations
A one-off session or an ongoing programme — I work alongside your existing offer and design something that fits the communities you serve.
Community spaces & galleries
Workshops that sit inside exhibitions, cultural events, or community-led projects. Art made by and for the community it comes from.
— Sara Samra
Rooted in street art
The techniques.
Every session draws from street art — bold, accessible, built for people who have something to say. The form matters: it carries a history of speaking when speaking wasn't easy.
Stencil & large-scale portraiture
Making something monumental out of something personal. Works on reclaimed cardboard, walls, fabric — whatever the space allows.
Collage & found materials
Newspapers, images, fragments. A way into the work for people who don't think they can draw — and a method that produces something genuinely powerful.
Henna & calligraphy
Mark-making as a way into identity and belonging. We write in the languages we carry — Arabic, Geez, English, and others — and in doing so, find a home in them.
Photography & visual storytelling
Giving people the lens. Participant-led image-making as a tool for telling your own story, on your own terms.
In practice
Henna & Calligraphy — Art as Resistance and Healing
In Sudan, henna has quietly become a form of protection — midwives and artists using hidden symbols in their designs to signal that a family wants to keep their daughters safe. This workshop is inspired by those women.
We use henna and calligraphy to explore how traditions can be reclaimed. Participants write in the languages they carry — Arabic, Geez, English and others — creating phrases that belong entirely to them. She's Fearless. Strength in Sisterhood. There is space to talk, to share, or to just make quietly.
People leave with something personal in their hands and a sense of connection to the others in the room. That is what the workshop is for.
In collaboration with The Vavengers and Eritrean Muslim Collective (EMC)
Let's make something together.
If you're running a programme and something here speaks to what you're doing — get in touch. I'd love to hear about your work and explore what a workshop could look like for your community.
Get in touch