Mela (n) Sanskrit ‘to meet’, to ‘gather’, to ‘blend’
… Mela’s bring people together and Mela’s make people happy!
Every year thousands of people across the country flock to these largescale festive events, to meet friends and family, to celebrate and to engage in cultural activity.
“So what’s all the fuss about”, a comment made by a funder, overheard by a volunteer, at the London Mela 2018.
Mela’s first became visible in the UK, when the first generation of Asian immigrants came together. Those that arrived in the 1960’s, a generation later, in the late 1980’s, started to find the time, the resources and the passion to create Mela – a generation on, they continue to evolve.
“Mela clearly means something to many thousands of people and we are keen to understand what that is.”
a comment made by a sponsor who attended Manchester Mega Mela 2018
We connect to make these audiences visible, to promote and capture the data and to make and commission incredible shows for families and communities across the country and beyond.
Melas highlight the discoveries, delights and challenges of our shared cultural identity, they are a welcoming place in which different ethnic and cultural communities can come together.
We do this by working with artists, arts organisations, arts centres, CPP’s, local authorities, volunteers, local businesses, schools, colleges, families and communities.
Melas, have been part of the UK’s cultural landscape for over 30 years. They attract attendances of over 500,000 people a year, for many of whom the Mela may be the only arts event they visit.
The Mela Partnership (pdf link) was initiated and has been led by Nutkhut for the past five years. It’s a national network of festivals and producers working within the Mela sector..
The Partnership shares learning and advocates for Mela as a vital cultural activity. We support 14 festivals in towns and cities with Diaspora communities. The partnership increases understanding and awareness of Mela and highlights its important contribution to social cohesion.
The 14 Mela Partners are: Bournemouth By The Sea Festival, Bradford Mela, Coventry Mela, Eden Arts, Hull Indian Mela, London Mela, Luton Mela, Manchester Mega Mela, Middlesbrough Mela, Newcastle Mela, Preston City Mela, Sandwell and Birmingham Mela, Southampton Mela Festival and Tunbridge Wells Mela.
In 2018, the combined impact of the 12 Mela’s in the Partnership was:
• The 12 Melas in the Partnership together 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 2018; analysis from Made in Mela Evaluation Report by Sam Projects, October 2018; figures in the public realm.
2019 will see Nutkhut initiating academic research into Mela.
We are currently in discussion with the Universities of Kent to study the impact Melas have had on people, communities and the wider arts ecology.
We are also working 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.
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.
Welcome to Mela dates for 2019 – we launch within the next week ,so watch this space!
Future Mela has three strands that synergise to build the capacity and ambitions of the Melas:
Leadership: Ensure Mela organisers are fully-equipped to deliver their organisations’ ambitions over the long term. We aim to integrate Mela organisers into established leadership programmes so that they are well-positioned to support their work and influence others.
Programming: Melas represent a success story in engaging hard to reach and diverse audiences. We aim to collaborate with other practitioners to extend this success, further diversify audiences and increase reach through new, surprising and high-quality programming.
Shared learning: Disseminate the learning from the model Melas interaction with other arts and cultural leaders, programmers and artists to the whole Mela Partnership. We will use the unique knowledge and experience of how Melas have succeeded as a learning tool for all arts and cultural organisations.
Tundry Way, Blaydon-on-Tyne 
November 6, 2019 12:50 am
+123 456 7890
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