Creating Cultures

The gates may have just closed on another successful Belfast Mela but before festival founder and Executive Director, Nisha Tandon OBE begins planning next year’s event she took the time to chat to Laura Mac about the development of Mela, its social and culture impact and why it’s fast becoming one of our top tourist attractions.

Nisha Tandon, who was born in India, came to Northern Ireland through arranged marriage forty years ago. Before her marriage she had completed a Performing Arts degree at the National School of Drama but when she arrived in Northern Ireland she found few opportunities to put her education to good use so she decided to carve her own career out of her cultural heritage:

“When I came here in 1977 there was no opportunity for an ethnic minority person to go into drama, theatre or even T.V. I decided to take another route, that being bringing my own cultural values to different communities.”

Nisha did this through the mediums of dance, visual art, storytelling and cookery:

“West Belfast was my first opening and from there I went all over the country. I was welcomed anywhere I went and never experienced racial abuse or intolerance towards me. I think, back then, we were just too busy fighting each other that minorities were overlooked.”

Later she ran her own Indian cookery school, in her home before expanding into schools and colleges.

Though the years, Nisha built relationships with other artists and art facilitators, living and working in Northern Ireland who were racially and culturally diverse. In 2006, they collectively founded ArtsEkta, Ekta meaning ‘unity’ with the aim of helping communities from all backgrounds build bonds by using the arts as their main tool.

“We started going into schools doing outreach work and from there we went into youth groups, bringing the idea of cultural diversity to them.

“Then we thought that if everyone who was learning about different cultures could come to one shared space and exhibit what they had learned, whether it was through the medium of dance, music, exhibition or food, that would really benefit everyone.