2025

By 2025, Muhammad’s work had grown into a bridge between independent artists and institutions that had often felt distant from the communities they served.

MVSTERCAMP continued expanding through Mastering the Secrets of the Game and real-world classes held at the Regional Arts Commission’s City Foundry space. Artists learned about ownership, collaboration, performance, business, storytelling, and the realities of sustaining a creative career while developing alongside a community of peers.

My role grew with the program. Along with serving as head photographer, I became increasingly responsible for organizing and managing MVSTERCAMP’s larger media archive. I documented classrooms, portraits, rehearsals, performances, conversations, and the quieter interactions that revealed what the program was accomplishing beyond its public events.

In September, Muhammad began his year as an Engaged City Community Fellow at Washington University, connecting his experiences as an artist, entrepreneur, mentor, husband, father, and St. Louis resident with wider conversations about the city’s culture, history, and future.

That work also helped create a meaningful partnership with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. The collaboration provided programming and more than one hundred complimentary tickets for each event, allowing Muhammad to welcome MVSTERCAMP artists, Washington University participants, families, and members of the wider community into the symphony together.

The goal was not simply to bring people through the door. It was to help younger and more diverse audiences see themselves as belonging in the room.

Throughout the year, Muhammad moved between classrooms, studios, university spaces, performances, family life, and cultural institutions without losing sight of the relationships at the center of the work. Every new partnership became another opportunity to connect people who may never have otherwise shared the same space.

Looking back, 2025 was a year of bridge-building. Muhammad was not leaving his community behind as larger institutions welcomed him in. He was bringing the community with him.