As head of Asian arts development at Watermans, West London, Salema Khanum exercises a significant degree of influence within the industry and the direction that Asian arts is taking.

Taking over from Dr Sarita Malik in May this year, and with the theatre season due to begin in full swing, we ask her where Asian theatre is headed.


What is Watermans about to you?
The new key word within my job title is Development, for over a decade, Watermans has achieved national acclaim for its innovative and continual programming of Asian arts.

Due to the changing times and the progress that has been made there are now more venues across the UK programming British Asian work. With this in mind Watermans aims not to compete with other venues for the same audiences or target groups or programming initiatives.

Watermans seeks to engage with the ever changing face of British Asian arts and all that it encompasses. Since the re-launch of Waterman's in 2001, there has been a dedicated team to the development of British Asian arts whether it is music, comedy, dance, visual art or performance and this is something we are actively encouraging and focussing on.


How do you want to take the venue forward?
As previously mentioned I am looking to work in partnership with other venues that are currently programming British Asian work or seeking to expand into this area. My aim is to ensure that British Asian arts isn't being conceived as topical and only here for the fashionable moment.

That there is a long term vision, ensuring longevity within these venues and audiences, be it Asian or non-Asian, guaranteeing that interest is continually being drawn to the work of the rising talent within the British Asian arts industry. These venues are rightfully working towards the continuing progress of British Asian arts.

At Waterman's we can offer advice, as we have been working within this field for the past 15 years. There is now an emphasis on attracting young people to the theatre that we are actively looking at ways in how we can make sure that the work venues and ourselves are doing, are programming events, plays, shows, workshops that are relevant to young people, namely the 2nd and 3rd generation (13 - 35 years old).


What do you see as the future for the industry?
If we look at how British Asian arts has progressed from the mid 80's to now, we can see that the word Arts now encompasses artists from all backgrounds - visual, musical, performance, installation etc. Due to this we can estimate that there will be more British Asian graduates from courses such as media, new media, and arts due to the increase in subject choices.

This in turn will mean we'll have a new wave of artists all with broad talents that in essence cross each other - if we look at Big Picture Company, the work they create comes from a visual base using multi media but still incorporating performance and text, this is very much a key trend right now and has been for some years.

With the insurgence of new technologies these methods will become integral to some British Asian artists.

Another example is Sikhs in the City, a co-production with Watermans and Sody Kahlon from The Funjabis, again this production used a large proportion of multi media - video projection, music, even animation. We hope that we can support these new companies and artists using advanced technologies in their work. We can see that there is a trend to create work that is politically topical to British Asians right now.

For example if we look at Peshkar's latest production In God we Trust, by taking a closer look at two prisoners of Guantanamo but not focusing on the brutality or injustice of the prison but more on the way their religion united them, we can see that they are dealing with not only a hot contentious topic but also different perceptions of faith, in particular that of the Muslim faith.


What's happening at Watermans now?
We have invited Indian international companies and practitioners to present work here; we are developing new British Asian writers by means of our DNAsia - Future Scripts event; being involved with the South Asian Touring Theatre Consortium (an Arts Council initiative, encorporating three London based venues [artsdepot, Croydon Clocktower, and Watermans] and 13 British Asian companies in the UK and exploring ways of working together and audience development).

We are actively programming South Asian dance and comedy, which have appealed to not only a British Asian audience but to a wider audience. We have a dedicated strand that looks at South Asian language arts, we have a relevant workshop programme (currently we have Kathak dance, Bharatanatyam, Bollywood dance, Hindu/Urdu writers' workshop and a writer's workshop).

Undoubtedly Waterman's strength lies in the fact that we have continually been and are still dedicated to supporting and encouraging British Asian artists.