Background, Mission, Vision and Passion
Oriental Arts is a social enterprise that promotes and provides artistic programming of South Asian and multi-cultural arts in the form of music, dance, drama and visual arts.
Mission statement
To champion and nurture South Asian and multi-cultural arts for all to enjoy, through community events, performances, educational and training activities which celebrate the heritage of South Asian communities and promote understanding and participation amongst diverse communities.
Vision statement
The leading provider of popular South Asian and multi-cultural arts primarily in the North of England, national and international.
Passion
Bringing the unique music, dance styles, drama and visual Arts of South Asia to the people of Bradford, and wider audiences within the United Kingdom as a whole, by working with critically acclaimed and well-known high quality performers locally and internationally.
Oriental Arts was set up as an unincorporated association in 1976. In 1988, it pioneered the development and performances of mainly South Asian music and drama. Since 1988 and until 2013, Oriental Arts has been leading the programming for the Bradford Mela.
This was an annual event sponsored and organized by Bradford City Council to present to the community live performances, mainly of South Asian music and drama, dance, visual arts, street art, fun fares and food fares. The MELA usually attracted an audience of 200,000 people from various backgrounds. As expert in the field, Oriental Arts also supplies artistic programming to other Melas, both nationally and internationally.
Since its inception, Oriental Arts has continually brought music, dance, visual arts and drama to diverse audiences. The community and mainstream events that it organizes and delivers, bring people together to celebrate, participate and learn through art based activities from the South Asian sub-continent.
Oriental Arts also enjoys showcasing established artists in Britain and on several
occasions has brought the world famous Pandit Ravi Shankar, sitar player, to Bradford, in addition to many other Bollywood, Bhangra and classical artists from both the UK and oversees.
Legal Structure
Oriental Arts is constituted as a Company Limited by Guarantee under the Companies Act 1984, Company No. 2893299. It is also a registered Charity, registration No.1033805.
Oriental Arts has also been looking into setting up a subsidiary trading company to diversify its trading activities for its sustainability. An ‘Appraisal of Oriental Arts current position in 2012 and the investigation of the need for a trading arm’ has been carried out during that year. The purpose of this exercise was to help the Board of Directors make an informed decision whether to proceed with the setting up of a trading arm or not.
The Board decided to postpone the setting up of a trading arm when Oriental Arts lost its contract to deliver the programming of Bradford Mela from Bradford City Council. The loss of contract has led to the reduction of working hours for the Artistic Director which made it difficult for him to grow the organisation further due to lack of resources.
Oriental Arts wishes to revisit this once it re-develops its capacity.
How can we help you?
We are Bradford's South Asian Arts event specialist and our services include event consultancy, event promotion and artistic programming. Please call 07769 830476 or drop us a line with any questions you may have.