Get in touch if you would like to take part by making some art or sharing your story. Our Garden – Sacred Spaces of Balsall Heath, is being produced by the United Church of St Paul’s, Mary Street with the Hazrat Sultan Bahu Trust, Ombersley Road and the Al-Abbas Islamic Centre, Clifton Road. It’s a Creative City Project generously funded by Birmingham City Council programmed by the Birmingham 2022
Festival. Our Garden is an invitation to enjoy nature with others and feel more deeply connected to it. Three artists - Shaheen Ahmed, Rachel Pilkington and Dave Gray – will be working with the community to make a printed map showing the trees, bees, sky and green spaces, right where we are in Balsall Heath. The map will point people to videos, via QR codes, of local people talking about what nature in the neighbourhood means to them. The communities in Balsall Heath will also be sharing their faith as they make videos and art together. Jo Ind, producer, said: “When we’re in the inner city, we sometimes don’t feel part of nature. And when we don’t feel part of nature, we don't feel motivated to take care of it. Our Garden helps us to see Balsall Heath in a new way: as a garden that we all tend together. We are Christians and Muslims. But anyone, of any faith, is welcome to join us and share how our faith traditions inform our love of and responsibility to the earth.”
The Our Garden steering group includes Abbas Shah, project manager; Jo Ind, producer; Kamran Shezad, sustainability lead, Bahu Trust; Abdullah Rehman, community engagement lead, Bahu Trust; Sheikh Nuru Mohammed, Imam, Al-Abbas Islamic Centre; Shenaz Sajan, inter-faith leader, Al-Abbas Islamic Centre; John Christophers, architect specialising in green design, member of the United Church of St Paul’s.
