Sophia Welz designs and manages community programmes for the Campaign for Free Expression, building events and campaigns that make democratic values tangible in everyday spaces. She brings 20 years of experience developing arts organisations, cultural programmes and live events across South Africa and internationally, including over a decade as Managing Director of the South African National Youth Orchestra Foundation. Her work spans the full spectrum of South Africa’s performing arts landscape, from headline festival productions to grassroots activations, and has included concerts featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Barbara Hendricks, as well as sold-out tours with Grammy Award-winning artists. Alongside this, she has worked in arts advocacy and led campaigns that use culture to counter social division. She has chaired the Brixton Community Forum since 2016, where her work has ranged from co-founding the Brixton Light Festival to building relations between the African Reclaimers Organisation and the local community to secure recognition and support for waste reclaimers. She was named one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans in 2011.