Rabia Begum is an emerging visual artist based in Calderdale. Inspired by her Islamic and Bangladeshi heritage, racial justice and psychology, Rabia aims to create meaningful social impact, encourage exploration and a deeper understanding of global stories. 

Begum’s recent residency at Everybody Arts, Stitching Sehri, Draping Iftar: Ramadan at Home (July 2025) explored several domestic illustrations on fabric, highlighting the memories shared at home with family and loved ones. The colours red and green resemble the colours used in the Bangladeshi flag, representative of Rabia’s Bangladeshi heritage and a nod to the British Bangladeshi Muslims taking part in Ramadan across the U.K. 

As part of the New Creatives Traineeship at Everybody Arts, Begum undertook a two-week micro-residency and curated an exhibition, Bearing Witness to Genocide (February 2025) which investigates six countries that are struggling for human rights. She is interested in textiles, printmaking, drawing and sounds. 

Begum works on the award-winning Families of the World project at Manchester Art Gallery, which provides creative play sessions for families that are seeking refuge and asylum. The project won the Museums Association’s: Best Museums Change Lives Award (2024). Graduating with a First-Class Honours in Art & Design History and Psychology at Liverpool Hope University (2023), her dissertation project, exploring how social factors influence eye movements when viewing paintings, led to a publication in a scientific journal, Nature. 

Rabia has co-curated the Climate Justice Gallery at Manchester Art Gallery (2022) and showcased a piece on behalf of the Museums Association for climate justice. She has sat on the Manchester Climate Change Youth Board, spoken on BBC Politics North-West to discuss net zero climate and worked on several projects with young people in Manchester delivering climate-based workshops.