Alia

I work for INTO, the International National Trusts Organisation, to protect cultural heritage and promote sustainable development globally. With a background in heritage advocacy and international collaboration, I bring a passion for connecting people and places. Living in Hampshire, I’m inspired by its rich cultural landscape and committed to ensuring that creativity and heritage are accessible, inclusive, future-facing (and occasionally muddy).

I am a multi-disciplinary artist, and freelance illustrator and designer specialising in arts education, book arts, stop-frame animation, model making, and graphic design. I am a part-time lecturer on the BA Illustration course at the University of Portsmouth in the School of Architecture, Art and Design. I run my small-press publishing platform, Micro Library Books, exhibiting at illustration fairs in the UK and internationally, and since 2001 I have co-run an arts education partnership, Borbonesa, founded with fellow artists. The arts education projects I work on often focus on wellbeing and community, such as Stories in Transit, which aims to establish the right of displaced individuals to cultural expression.

I am a professional visual artist and creative producer, celebrated for vibrant, layered explorations of colour. Guided by synaesthetic perception, my meticulously crafted abstract works transform sound and emotion into striking abstractions that captivate with both energy and depth. I collaborate with musicians and sound designers closely and have exhibited internationally, with work represented by Saatchi. I have over 20 years of working in the Rushmoor community as a creative producer, founded the music charity Forward 4 Wiz Trust in 2007 and currently work at Aldershot’s West End Centre as the Community Programmes Manager.