Tuesday 24th May 2022, 2.30pm – 3.30pm (UK time) | Online
We kick off our second hybrid session of the season live and online from Tuned In! in Redcar in the North East.
Featuring Stella Hall from Festival of Thrift – the UK’s National Festival of sustainable living, working throughout the year with artists to reach out locally and across the UK to audiences of all backgrounds, encouraging all to “make the shift to thrift”.
Join us while we discuss good practice, case studies and new ways of working.
Local events and local audiences are on the increase. Our data and metrics provide Mela Partnership events with common themes; local, intergenerational, and often the only cultural event attended by our audiences.
Joining us for this session include:
We’ve designed this series of events about environmental sustainability in our sector to open up questions with the broader Mela market and to hear how Mela can both teach and learn from the wider outdoor sector.
If you’d like to be part of the discussion, join us online on Tuesday 24th May 2022 from 2.30pm to 3.30pm (UK time).
We will record the event and share it afterwards with all those registered.
Sports and culture have never been as relevant in the modern world and are increasingly influential elements of foreign policy. They’re now a global commodity used to promote diplomacy worldwide.
This summer, the Commonwealth Games and its unique set of sports, will be held in the host city of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.
The Olympics, Paralympics and Commonwealth Games bring together athletes and audiences of different social and economic backgrounds, ethnicities, faiths, ages and countries of origin. International games can be a powerful platform for cultural exchange; however, they require the support of cultural programmes to truly enhance the games’ cultural impact and celebration of diversity.
In the front room of my family home, three generations, oceans apart, came together from across the Commonwealth.
We entertained, ate and socialised. Space was at a premium, and we communicated in four different languages. In equal measures, it was both chaotic and compelling. This early environment helped me develop a sensitivity to the needs of other people, an ear for accents and a deep appreciation for diversity in the places we live.
Civil, social and community cohesion are at the heart of my work.
My lived and professional experience focuses on access, social mobility, intergenerational initiatives, and opportunities in arts and culture in its broadest context. I’ve spent most of my life bringing people from different countries, cultures, and communities together through artistic creations, festivals, and creative partnerships, across the UK, Europe and beyond.
Birmingham has a super diverse and creative makeup, with its roots reaching back to the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Birmingham has continually changed and evolved; it’s now a city of young makers, innovators, serial entrepreneurs and creators.
As a host city, Birmingham is more than just a city of business. It’s an amalgamation of all the communities, cultures and backgrounds that call it home. People from over 200 nationalities speaking 300 different languages live in Birmingham, which has been referred to as a city where its ethnic makeup will soon be “majority minority”. It’s a city where green space, culture and heritage meet the business of modern life.
Birmingham, similar to many evolving global cities, is radically redefining both the economic and cultural landscape, facing both opportunities and challenges: changing demographics, social and neighbourhood segregation, neighbourhood deprivation, education disparities, high unemployment, marginalised and disadvantaged young people and gender inequality.
I believe with the right leadership, International sporting events and the cultural programmes around these events, can help us overcome some of this complexity, fragmentation and inequality.
First presented in 1930, the Commonwealth Games takes place every four years and involves athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The games reflect the Commonwealth Games Federation’s core values of friendship, equality, and fair play. Athletes from the Commonwealth compete on a level playing field in a spirit of friendship, fair play, inclusivity and respect for each other:
— Disabled athletes are full members of their national teams when they compete, making the Commonwealth Games the first major international multi-sport event to become fully inclusive.
— For the first time in 2018, the Commonwealth Games featured an equal number of men’s and women’s medal events.
The cultural programme alongside the games, the Birmingham Festival 2022, has the potential to not only celebrate the cultural diversity of nations taking part but to also support local communities.
A decade ago, Nutkhut’s Bollywood Steps by Simmy Gupta, a large-scale ambitious outdoor production as part of the West Midlands Culture Programme for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games injected a thirst for outdoor work in Birmingham and the region and we can see the legacy of this production in the city, a decade on.
Indeed outdoor performances such as Bollywood Steps in public spaces can transform areas of a city. I’ve seen first-hand how multicultural, multi-disciplinary festivals and installations in outdoor, public spaces can rejuvenate inaccessible places and enthral unengaged communities.
Nutkhut’s schools programme and the work of the George Dixon Academy in Smethwick is a perfect example of how young people from underserved communities can reach out to young people across the 54 member states with optimism, by focussing on key issues of our time, such as Climate Change and small islands states, of which many of the young people have diaspora connections.
Sport, art and culture are all soft powers that are used to strengthen relationships by bringing people together through shared experiences of celebration and striving for improvement. They provide opportunities to involve people, to reach out to unite, socialise, educate and communicate with people worldwide.
And therein lies the focus and opportunity – involvement – what does Birmingham’s involvement look like?
Who benefits once the managers, producers, and creative decision-makers move on to other jobs, projects, and cities.
From what is emerging, it’s clear to see in the public domain, a dysfunctional structure, where perhaps the leadership has missed the fundamentals needed when bringing people together. As one year 9 child at George Dixon said to me 2 months before the games begin:
Nobody in the city cares about the Games.
What a sad reflection even before the games or the cultural programme begins, what has gone wrong for a child to feel this way about one of the most important events in the city’s life, in recent times?
Examples from previous recent cultural and sporting programmes suggest legacy is an afterthought. Let us see how deep the levels of engagement go with this Birmingham opportunity. Let’s ensure we all hold to account the cultural impact the games can have on a cohesive society and a genuine cohesive legacy, and of course, let’s win some medals along the way.
Ajay Chhabra is a Civil Society Advisory Governor of the Commonwealth Foundation and serves the Europe region.
Nutkhut is honoured to be taking part in The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant, featuring the tallest wedding cake you’ll have ever seen in front of Buckingham Palace.
The Pageant takes place on 5th June 2022 to honour Her Majesty The Queen as the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee with 70 years of service.
Nutkhut is the only South Asian led company with Commonwealth connections, creating a section of the procession for the pageant in London.
The Wedding Party by Nutkhut, takes its inspiration from the Royal Wedding of The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh with a six-metre-high, four-tiered wedding cake as the visual centrepiece. Each tier represents the Silver, Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilees of Her Majesty.
Created by Nutkhut’s Joint Artistic Director’s Ajay Chhabra and Simmy Gupta, The Wedding Party celebrates the universal joy of families and communities uniting through the coming together of two people.
“Born in Wolverhampton and from a working class background, I am honoured to be invited to curate a section of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, to celebrate The Queen’s 70 years on the throne, it is such a unique and rare opportunity – a decade ago I was invited by the Royal Household to create a piece for the Ballroom of Buckingham Palace – to now bring this celebration to the streets of London along with a diverse group of people, from all walks of life, this is a special moment in time. My grandmother would be proud.”
– Simmy Gupta, co-Artistic Director
Drawing on the collective talent of Mela, it will be performed in an elaborate Bollywood style, by two hundred and fifty performers of all ages, from London, Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester, Southampton and Newcastle.
The spirit of the Commonwealth will flow through a specially designed Platinum Jubilee Sari that is composed of sustainable organic fabric and is being made especially for the celebrations. It’ll be a key feature of the performance. Read more about the Sari here >>
Simmy Gupta and Ajay Chhabra will work with Pageant Master Adrian Evans LVO to create the spectacle.
“I am delighted to be working with Simmy & Ajay from Nutkhut. Their connection with community and their artistic vision captures the essence of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant on the world’s stage.”
– Adrian Evans LVO, Pageant Master
Nutkhut’s other projects include Bollywood Steps National tour, the UK’s first large scale South Asian dance touring production (from stately homes to public squares, from cathedrals to palaces including Buckingham Palace), Dr Blighty (Centenary of the Great War, video mapping, heritage) and Girmit (360 VR tech focus, Fiji, international collaborators).
“Seventy years ago, my mother, nine years old at the time, welcomed The Queen to Fiji; a 10,000 mile journey resulted in her and three generations of women in my family making London their home – Seventy years on, my daughter, now nine years old, will celebrate and participate in our section of the Pageant for Her Royal Highness. This intergenerational family story lives on.”
– Ajay Chhabra, co-Artistic Director
The Platinum Jubilee Pageant, as part of the extended Bank Holiday Weekend, will take place on Sunday 5th June 2022, providing an opportunity for communities and people to celebrate this historic milestone of Her Majesty The Queen as the first British Monarch to celebrate 70 years of service. These four days of celebrations will include public events and community activities, as well as national moments of reflection on The Queen’s reign of seven decades.
The Wedding Party by Nutkhut will be a key feature in the Pageant. It will meander through the streets of Westminster and along The Mall, past Buckingham Palace telling the story of Her Majesty’s record reign and the transformation of our society over this unprecedented period.
Wednesday 23rd March 2022, 4pm – 5.30pm (UK time) | Online
We kick off our first hybrid session of the season live and online from Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle. Join us while we discuss good practice, case studies and new Environmentally Sustainable ways of working.
Now is the time to ask difficult questions about real-world sustainability in large outdoor festivals, the distances audiences travel to events, and the products and services used to create Mela and other outdoor events.
With events part of the Mela Partnership, we’ve seen more people attending events in their local areas. And entire families spanning generations are sharing the experience of these local events. These one or two local events per year are often the only cultural events they attend.
Joining us for this session include:
We’ve designed this inaugural conversation about environmental sustainability in our sector to open up questions with the broader Mela market and to hear how Mela can both teach and learn from the wider outdoor sector.
If you’d like to listen to our discussion, join us online tomorrow, Wednesday 23rd March 2022, from 4pm to 5.30pm (UK time).
We will record the event and share it afterwards with all those registered.