About
The meaning of Mela
Mela is the meeting, the coming together, the mix, the blend of unique aspects of our society – creative, resilient, spiritual. It comes from the Sanskrit ‘to meet’, related to ‘milana’ the verb to mix, to tune, to come together and is used to describe a large gathering of people, a fair or a festival.
At a time when understanding of each other, of difference matters so much – particularly with face-to-face opportunities, Mela plays an important role.
The Mela Partnership, led by Nutkhut, is a diverse, national membership network of festivals, volunteers and producers. It develops high quality creative programming, shares learning and builds capacity.
The Partnership supports the commissioning and touring of new and innovative outdoor arts productions, facilitates networking events and seminars and supports the professional development of the next generation of Mela makers. Our strength, impact and growth is a result of our diversity of faith, class and gender.
Mela is often the only publicly-funded arts activity which families attend outside their own family or community events.
Mela Partners
Our Mela Partners are:
- Arts by the Sea – Bournemouth
- Bula Festival – Aldershot
- Camden Mela – London
- City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
- Desi Fest Luton
- Eden Arts – Cumbria
- Hull Indian Mela – Kingston upon Hull
- Leicester City Council
- Luton Mela
- Manchester Mega Mela
- Middlesbrough Mela
- Newcastle Mela
- Peepul Centre – Leicester
- Preston City Mela
- Redcar and Cleveland
- Rushmoor Borough Council
- Southampton Mela – Arts Asia
- Tunbridge Wells Mela – Cohesion Plus
Impact and Advocacy
In 2019/2020, the combined impact of the 18 Mela’s within the Partnership at that time was:
— The Partnership came together and attracted over 300,000 attenders
— 553 professional artists performed
— 317 community groups took part
— 261 volunteers took part
— Mela Partnership social media campaign reached 797k people
— Presented 4 productions with 18 performances
— 64% of attenders were from BAME backgrounds
— 54% attended just 1 arts event over the past year – usually their local Mela
— 71% of audiences are aged 16-44
These statistics are drawn from data-collection undertaken by the Mela Survey Team over the course of 2021/2022; analysis from Made in Mela Evaluation Report inc. by Sam Projects, October 2019/2020; figures in the public realm.
Academic Research
2022 saw Nutkhut initiating academic research into Mela.
We opened discussions on the study and impact Melas have had on people, communities and the wider arts ecology.
We also worked on addressing the power of Mela to intergenerational audiences and through cross sector research, such as Mela and Health through an arts perspective, Mela and Education, alongside our learning partners and conscious of social mobility and social cohesion, the role Mela has played in the lives of young people and families who feel disenfranchised and not part of the status quo.
This is a particularly unique challenge we face as a society and we aim to ask some difficult questions.
30 years of Mela in the UK could be interpreted in many ways. What is Mela doing so successfully to be so resilient in some aspects and fragility elsewhere. What can arts professionals, other cultural and arts organisations learn from Mela and vice versa?
Our lived experience, our informal networks, our access to a wider community who have not benefited from associations or training, is our natural starting point.
Testimonies
Come on board
We work in partnership with a range of artists, venues, festivals, arts organisations, consultants, academics, educational institutions and teachers. We speak most of the languages spoken at Mela and we steer clear of jargon! So, come and talk to us – you might be one of these:
- An artist or arts organisation looking to work in Mela
- A student keen to gain some work experience or insight into the workings of a Mela
- A future programmer or Artistic Director
- A researcher or consultant
- An academic or student
Or quite possibly, none of the above, so lets talk.
connect@nutkhut.co.uk
We run talks and seminars, from outreach programmes for continuing professional development, please get in touch if you’d like to find out more or have an idea that you’d like to test.