Muhammad Ali’s fingertip-to-fingertip reach was 78 inches, well above the 71-inch average for heavyweights in the boxing world. And in the world, Ali’s reach was and continues to be well above average, immeasurable.
“I spent a lot of my childhood here and some of the most vivid and best memories of my father are connected to this place,” said Ali’s daughter, Khaliah Ali, speaking at Orwigsburg’s Fighters Heaven on Friday. “I’ve never walked in here without feeling my father’s presence and knowing that there’s a community that still loves and admires him – I think it would mean everything to him.”
Khaliah Ali, artist Mark Dickens and photographer Jeff Julian visited Fighters Heaven to announce 15 Rounds of Art, an art project to honor Ali’s profound impact on the world, extending far beyond the boxing ring. Using Julian’s photographs, along with mixed-media art techniques, Dickens will create 16 works of art, including the “15 Rounds of Art” plus one more, to be sold to benefit a charity (as yet unnamed).
Julian was the principal photographer of Ali when he was at his Orwigsburg training camp, now named Fighters Heaven and managed by Mick Stefanek. Khaliah Ali and her husband Spencer Wertheimer met Dickens, a Londoner who lives in Abu Dhabi, through mutual friends.
Dickens said that his goal in the series is to capture the special aspects of Ali’s personality, including his athleticism, his values and his humanitarianism. Each work will be enhanced by including handwritten quotations from people who either knew Ali or were influenced by his words and actions.
“The theme of the project is to focus on his (Ali’s) time here at the training camp,” Dickens said. “To capture his presence, and his generosity of spirit, with art that will be immersive and transformative.”
Khaliah Ali credited Stenanek and Julian for their involvement in the project.
“His (Stefanek’s) stewardship and preservation, his sense of history of this piece of
Pennsylvania, is touching,” she said. “And the project would not be possible without Jeff Julian’s photos.”
When complete, prints of the 15 Rounds of Art will be available for purchase as a collection, Dickens said. He said he is already working on the project, but did not yet know when it will be completed.
Fighters Heaven is located near Orwigsburg at 58 Sculps Hill Road.
Ali’s Post-Ring Accomplishments
Ali was 74 when he died in 2016. He’d won three world heavyweight titles and an Olympic gold medal. He lived at his training camp, now named Fighters Heaven, roughly from 1972 to 1980.
For him, the training camp served as both a sanctuary and a place to prove personal integrity – to focus on grit and determination in training. After his boxing career ended, Ali traveled the world to help disadvantaged people, and promote religious, racial and economic equality.
Some of his humanitarian works included:
- Working with Michael J. Fox to raise awareness about Parkinson’s Disease, which both men had.They helped generate funds for the Mohammad Ali Parkinson’s Research Center, located at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.
- Supporting the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Special Olympics, and The Cradle (a Chicago-based adoption agency).
- Working for the Childrens’ Peace Foundation, which led to his appointment as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In that role, Ali hand-delivered medical supplies and food to orphanages, street children and hospitals in Asia and Africa.
Ali received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Amnesty International. In 2005, then-President George W Bush awarded Ali the Congressional Medal of Freedom.
“We hope that the project will reach others far away from its origins,” Khaliah Ali said.
PHOTO CAPTION: Artist Mark Dickens and Khaliah Ali visited Fighter’s Heaven to announce 15 Rounds of Art, a project honoring Khaliah’s father.
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