An arts organisation which pioneered Bradford's first mela has been entered for a prestigious community awards scheme.

Oriental Arts, based at The Design Exchange in Bradford's Peckover Street, was the first arts group to promote south Asian music, arts and drama in the city.

The organisation has been nominated for this year's Lord Mayor's Community Harmony Awards which highlight the district's most courageous individuals and organisations for community work.

Sixteen years after Bradford's first mela, the Oriental Arts Company is still a main player behind the scenes, signing up local, national and international artists for the multi-cultural highlight of the city's calendar.

News of its success has spread and now it also organises melas for other towns and cities such as Huddersfield, Halifax and Glasgow in Scotland with interest coming from as far away as Norway and Ireland.

Mela comes from the Sanskrit word meaning 'to meet', and is one of the most colourful and exuberant traditions originating from the Indian sub-continent.

It is a celebration of art and culture, a festival of sights, sounds, smells and taste, with bazaars, folk troupes, dance and music. Although mela festivals are centuries old in the regions of South Asia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, this country had to wait until 1988 for Bradford to blaze a trail, inspiring other cities to follow suit.

Oriental Arts itself began in 1976 when it was co-founded by Champak Kumar who is still its co-ordinator today.

Mr Kumar originally started it as a way of teaching South Asian music, dance and drama in colleges but over the years the company has expanded and now provides acts for around eight festivals a year. As well as its mela work, Oriental Arts continues to run seminars, workshops, support groups and dance events and activities across Bradford in its theatres and community centres.

Mr Kumar said: "We use the arts to bring together Bradford's diverse community and make it an even richer place to live and work. Bradford is a truly multi-cultural place and we want to celebrate that."

Oriental Arts has also grown by teaming up with the business community, other arts groups and Bradford theatres. A £26,000 grant from the Arts Council has paid for seven events to be staged in the city - the next is a classical dance and folk music performance at the Alhambra Dance Studio on Saturday, March 26.

Oriental Arts is also helping to bring a Bollywood star and top Punjabi Bhangra entertainer Gurdas Mann to the city at St George's Hall on Sunday, April 3.

Other nominations for the Community Harmony Awards are streaming in before the March 31 deadline.