Arts group reflects on 30 years of celebrating city’s different cultures

The head of South Asian arts organisation Surtal Arts has been reflecting on 30 years of bringing local communities together to celebrate different cultures and artforms.

This year, Surtal Arts, the organisation behind highly successful events like the Derby Season of Light, which runs until the end of this month, has been celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Gopa Nath, who is head of Surtal Arts, grew up in a highly cultured family in India.

She came to the UK as a teenager and moved to Derby when she got married – working for the civil service and raising a family.

Having developed a passion for the arts throughout her life, she was keen that her own children learned Indian classical music and dance to preserve their rich cultural heritage and joined forces with a small group of other mothers to set up classes for their children.

This grew over the years to the formation of Surtal Arts in Derby 30 years ago, which has since gone on to inspire many British-born South Asian artists – not least Gopa’s own daughter Nisha who is a well-respected dancer.

Today, Gopa continues to be the driving force behind Surtal Arts.

She said: “From the seed of an idea in 1994 and programming occasional events, we have grown into a key cultural partner in Derby – respected for our high-quality delivery, cross cultural programming, commissions and as an advocate of diverse arts.

“Surtal Arts is unique in Derby and surrounding area as being multi-artform development agency with specialism in South Asian arts.

“We use this specialism as a foundation to collaborate with many arts and non-arts organisations, artists and communities to produce unique cross-cultural productions so that the arts we offer to people are meaningful, inspiring and reflecting of the multicultural society we live in.

“Over the years we expanded our work into Derbyshire, which means our audience has become more diverse.

“We had to change the way we engage with our audience, especially with our British young Asians.

“Growing up in dual cultures can be very confusing. Therefore, being clear about one’s identity is hugely important and if we can help in that process through the arts, it is enormously satisfying.

“Derby has a particularly strong Bhangra scene, which has a distinct ‘Derby’ sound.

“Over the years we have supported many young people who have become successful international Bhangra artists, and we feel very proud in supporting them in their early career.

“Going forward we will continue to prioritise our work with children and young people, emerging artists from diverse and disadvantage communities of Derby.

“We plan to create creative opportunities for them to have a ’place’ in the wider and mainstream arts world as creators, audience and participants.”