A BRADFORD charity that aims to bring people together using art forms from South Asia is gearing up to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Oriental Arts, based on Peckover Street in Little Germany, was established in 1976, and organisers say the group will mark the milestone with a programme of special events in the city.

Although details are still to be finalised, founding member Champak Kumar said one of the events would feature a "cultural extravaganza" of Indian music and dance.

"I am proud to have developed an organisation that has had 40 years of success," he said.

"It is important to teach new generations about different cultures. Our mission has always been bringing people together through South Asian and collaborative arts."

The charity was started by students from the University of Bradford who wanted to teach and perform traditional South Asian music.

Mr Kumar became artistic director in 1980, and said throughout its history, the group had been successful in organising events that celebrated Bradford and Yorkshire's cultural diversity.

The charity set up the first Bradford Mela in 1988, and continued to help coordinate the event as it became the biggest and most successful event of its kind anywhere in the UK.

The group is also involved in the organisation of the Bradford Festival, which began incorporating the Mela from 2013.

Other notable events have included bringing the late Ravi Shankar, the world famous sitarist, to the city for concerts on several occasions, and hosting a performance by the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn, the world-famous Qawali singer.

Last month, the group held the first event to mark its 40th anniversary with a performance by the Indian poet and singer Satinder Sartaaj at Bradford's St George's Hall.

The star has performed at the Royal Albert Hall and to crowds of more than 50,000 people in his home country, but hosted the intimate gig to mark the charity's milestone year.

"Since our inception 40 years ago, we have continually brought music, dance, visual arts, and drama to diverse audiences", said Mr Kumar.

"Our passion is community art, and in 1988 we set up the Bradford Mela, which once attracted an audience of 200,000 people from all kinds of backgrounds from all over the UK.

"Now, as experts in the field, we supply artistic programming to other Melas, both regionally and nationally."

In recent years, the group has worked to complete a Heritage Lottery-funded project entitled 'Cultural Connections', designed to capture the history and traditions of South Asian art in Bradford.

The project used the medium of oral history to capture first-hand accounts of migration to the Bradford district from South Asia.

The recordings gave an intimate insight into people's motivations for coming to Bradford from the sub-continent, and how the UK’s cultural scene had been influenced by South Asian culture.

Through Cultural Connections, the charity said it had also been able to pass on knowledge and skills of Bhangra dancing, dhol drumming, and oral history recording and archiving to hundreds of young people.

The charity also offers its services to work with local schools and community centres to conduct interactive workshops in traditional drumming and dancing, providing a range of instruments and equipment alongside free lesson plans and resources for pupils in key stages two and three.

A number of artists can also be hired for events, via the charity's consultancy, event promotion, and artistic programming services.

Mr Kumar said the charity was planning a year-long programme of cultural events that would culminate in a prestigious black-tie dinner, to be held in Bradford in August next year.

"Oriental Arts brings people together to celebrate, participate, and learn through art deriving from the South Asian sub-continent," he said.

"It is important to us to make a genuine contribution to the cultural life of Bradford, and we believe that our Oriental Arts events have a broad appeal.

"We are very much looking forward to the events over the coming year."