Sunara Begum (; born 22 September 1984) is an English visual and performance artist, filmmaker, photographer and writer of Bangladeshi descent. She uses installation, film, photography, live performance, sonics and text. Begum is the founder and director of Chand Aftara, a creation centre. Begum is also the co-founder of Living Legacies, a traditional music archive in Gambia and New Horizons Africa, a music and arts festival in Lagos, Nigeria. Early life Begum was born in London, England. She was encouraged to pursue the visual arts by her mother, who from an early age would recite stories of growing up in the villages of Bangladesh. Begum is of Bangladeshi descent and was brought up with the traditions of her native Bangladesh in a Sufi-Muslim household. She began her studies at Camberwell College of Arts. In 2008, she graduated from Central St Martins College of Art and Design where she completed BA in Fine Art and MFA in Fine Art. Whilst at Central St Martins College, she spent much of her time recording various visual projects on both abstract and narrative based subject matter, in order to extract, explore and express her artistic vision, primarily through photography and film. During her studies Begum did several apprenticeships with renowned international visual artists, as well as working as archivist for the Henry Moore Foundation and as research assistant, camera operator and line producer for Halaqah Media. Career Art Begum had her first exhibition at the National Annexe Gallery (2004) as part of a group show in Cape Town, South Africa while still at St Martins. Since then, her solo exhibitions include; Whitespace Gallery (2016, Nigeria), Dimbola Museum & Gallery (2016, UK), Lionel Wendt Gallery (2015, Sri Lanka), Centre for Contemporary Art (2015, Nigeria), St. Martin in the Fields (2014, UK), Khalili Lecture Theatre SOAS (2013, UK), St. Martin in the Fields (2012, UK), Drik Gallery (2011, Bangladesh), 198 Gallery (2010, UK), Departure (2009, UK), Shoreditch Gallery (2008, UK), East-Side Educational Trust (2007, UK), Brady Arts Centre (2007, UK). She has collaborated with a wide range of practitioners from the visual arts, music and dance including multi-media artist Trevor Mathison, spoken word artist HKB FiNN, classical composer Tunde Jegede and dancer/choreographer Bode Lawal. As a visual artist she has exhibited extensively in galleries across UK and internationally in Europe, Asia and Africa. From October to November 2010, she exhibited Ara: A New Face of the