User talk:Deesh 71

Hardish Virk (born March 9, 1971 in Coventry, UK) is a leading Marketing, PR and Audience Development specialist based in England, working in the creative sector. He is also a writer and in his spare time is a DJ.

Early years

Hardish was born to parents, Bhajan Birk and Jasvir Kang, who were both writers. His father was also a playwright and musician whilst his mother Jasvir went onto becoming an established radio broadcaster on South Asian radio stations based in the West Midlands. Early on in his life, Hardish started an active interest in the arts initially as a keen visual artist. By the early 1980’s he formed a drama group at school with a couple of friends developing his interest in the performing arts. Throughout the 1980's, Hardish spent a great deal of his time writing poetry, songs, stage plays and short stories and by the mid-1980’s he had performed some of this work to friends, family and appeared in local plays under the umbrella of different companies including Hut Theatre Group (which he set up with some friends from school). In 1985, he joined the Belgrade Youth Theatre, Coventry and was cast in the production of The Good Person of Szechwan (by Bertolt Brecht )in 1986.

Music and DJ Life

In 1985, Hardish was given a synthesiser as a present by his parents, leading him to set up a local band who covered popular music of the time. By the late 1980's, he had developd his interest in music by purchasing DJ equipment and a Tascam 8 track mixer. Hardish started to produce Hip Hop mix tapes, which were sold to customers across the UK via magazines such as Record Mirror and Hip Hop Connection. By 1991, Hardish under the DJ name Deesh937 had performed to hundreds of revellers from across the West Midlands at venues such as the Tic Toc, Coventry; Mercia Leisure Centre, Coventry; West Indian Centre, Coventry; Moseley Dance Centre, Birmingham and The Depot Studios, Coventry. In 1991 Hardish formed Another Creed, a British Hip Hop group influenced by his interest in rap and soul music. Another Creed was short lived but Hardish went onto sharing his DJ and music making skills with young people across Coventry up until 2000 via workshops facilitated by Youth Services and a number of charities working with disenfranchised young people.

Hardish continued DJing throughout the 1990’s as a promoter and DJ and by 1998, he was resident DJ at Bar Bindi, Leicester. In 1999 with a couple of friends he set up Ultimate Karma with a residency at the Nightingale Club, Birmingham, which would tour to cities including Manchester. Since then he has ran a number of club nights including Street Beatz Boogaloo with DJ Trew Selector.

Stage Life

In 1993, Hardish established Multi Arts Nation (www.multiartsnation.com) with the objective of creating ground breaking performance arts experience underlined by the concept of marrying traditional art forms with new technology. The company was launched with the production of Innovation.

Innovation (1993)

Innovation was an experimental performance arts piece designed to fuse contemporary dance, theatre, live DJ, video footage and a backdrop created with the images of the narrative on stage. A DJ on stage created a soundtrack to the dancers who performed in the shadow of a specially designed mural which enclosed the stage. The audience had to enter into this space making it a more intimate experience. TV screens featured clips as a visual soundtrack. Issues around gender and sexuality were explicitly projected. Hardish approached Innovation in a unique method by writing a number of different scripts for the different art forms which ran parallel to each other during the development stages. These were bought together during the rehearsal stages. Innovation had a regional tour taking in performances at the Belgrade Studio, Coventry; Helena Ranson Theatre, Ernesford Grange Secondary School & Community College, Coventry and Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton. Innovation was written and directed by Hardish and choreographed by Candy Thompson. Hardish was also responsible for the fund raising, administration and marketing of the production. Innovation was funded by West Midlands Arts, Coventry City Council, Prince’s Trust and was supported by the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.

Hardish continued promoting, producing, writing and directing stage productions until 2000 including:

Geji (1994 - 1995)

An English language stage adaptation of short stories written in Punjabi by Jasvir Kang. This was a powerful theatre production exploring issues of domestive voilence and how Geji, the protaginist is able to empower herself. Geji featured his mother, Jasvir Kang as the narrator and his sisters Manjinder and Paven Virk as the actresses. Geji was funded by West Midlands Arts, Coventry City Council and was supported by the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Performances took place at the Belgrade Studio, Coventry.

The Night of the Living Nan Bread (1997 - 1998)

Hardish started writing comedy sketches in 1996 based on popular cultural references from the UK, US and India with a play on films, music and challenging British Asian stereotypes. Over the next couple of years, the sketches were turned into the production of The Night of the Living Nan Bread, which played at the Belgrade Studio, Coventry. Hardish was on writing, producing, directing, acting and marketing duties. Even though this was a Multi Arts Nation production, the pseudo name used for the production was 4 Asians and a Balti. This production also featured his sisters Manjinder and Paven Virk. It was funded by West Midlands Arts, Coventry City Council and supported by the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.

Other productions that Hardish worked on in the capacity of fundraising, producing, administrating and marketing were Girlie Talk (1995) and Boy meets Girl (1996) by Second Generation Theatre, a company set up by his sister, Paven Virk.

In 2004, Hardish, Imagineer Productions and the Belgrade Theatre came together to produce a new play written by Paven Virk with research work undertaken with the support of Jasvir Kang. The play explored issues around mental health and independence and was set in a South Asian women's shelter home. The result was The Usual Auntijies which played at the B2 space at the Belgrade Theatre in 2011. The play was eventually produced by the Belgrade Theatre with audience development support by Hardish.

Marketing Career

In 1986, Hardish started his career in marketing with designing posters for the Belgrade Youth Theatre and a local Jazz Festival. By the early 1990's, he was designing promotional literature and marketing all the productions and events he was directly involved with.

In 1991, Hardish published a number of Coventry based magazines (No Barriers and Masterplan) that featured news on popular culture, the local arts scene but also explored political issues such as global warming, racism and supported charities such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International. Hardish was the editor, contributor, advertising scout and promotions manager. This allowed him to develop a diverse range of skills and reach out to a diverse range of readers in the Coventry and Warwickshire area.

His interest in experimenting with strategic audience development work started in 1994, when he set up a South Asian ambassadors group for the Belgrade Theatre so to engage local South Asian communities with the theatres work.

Between 1995 - 2000, Hardish would develop his community engagement knowledge and skills further whilst working on projects designed to make public services more accessible to culturally diverse communities. Services included social and support, sexual health, leisure facilities and majority of the service users were young people, gay men and adults with learning disabilities.

By 1999, Hardish had started a full time marketing and PR career in the arts with a specific interest in developing new audiences for arts and cultural experiences as he felt that many of the arts institutions were not experienced or equipped to engage with a growing number of new communities aswell as established culturally diverse communities. Experience of the last 10 years allowed Hardish to introduce new arts marketing methodologies and he coined his approach Social Marketing, which was essentially tailoring the marketing so that it is socially relevant to the community that is being targeted.

2000 - 2012

In 2000, Hardish managed the Networking Project, an ambassadors scheme working with arts organisations in Birmingham that included Sampad, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Fierce Earth, Symphony Hall, mac, the drum arts centre, Ikon Gallery and CBSO. The objective was to develop African, Caribbean and South Asian audiences for these venues. This was a major strategic audience development project which ran for nearly 3 years.

In 2000, the Birmingham Repertory Theatre produced the main house production of The Ramayana and Hardish was recruited to lead on the South Asian audience development campaign. After a successful project and run, the production was transfered to the National Theatre with Hardish continuing his role as the audience development consultant. The Ramayana sold out in the Olivier Theatre with majority South Asian audiences. In 2001, The Really Useful Group were interested in learning about the person behind the development of South Asian audiences for the production of The Ramayama as they were looking for someone to work on Bombay Dreams with them. In 2002, Hardish managed a major strategic national and international South Asian audience development campaign for Bombay Dreams, which ran for 2 years with a majority South Asian audience, many of whom had never been to the West End before.

Hardish has since worked on theatre, dance, visual arts, festivals, carnival, melas, music across the UK with clients including Royal Academy of Arts, Hampstead Theatre, Young Vic, Tara Arts, Tamasha Theatre and Act Productions Ltd.

Hardish has also over the last 12 years led on debates, panel discussions, wrote articles, facilitated training and consulted on audience development, cultural diversity and equality issues. This work has taken place across the UK and in Europe with clients including the British Council, Arts Council England, Kick it Out!, City University London, Intercult (Sweden), Braendstof (Denmark)and Department for Culture, Media and Sports.

Hardish continues to share his practises of developing new audiences at seminars and training workshops and works as a consultant in the UK and Europe, supporting organisations with the development of policy and strategy documents focusing on communications, diversity and organisational development.

Writing

Hardish is currently in the process of completing his first novel.

Recognition

Featured in Who’s Who Of Asian Achievers – Asians in the Millennium (Asian Times) - 2000

Featured in Asian Who’s Who International – Millennium Edition 2000 (Asian Observer Publication)

Interview/ Profile: ADiTi - South Asian Dance Publication – 2000

Interview/ Profile: Working in performing arts (DfEE) - 2001

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce: 2003 - 2005

Interview: Arts Industry publication - 2005

Interview/ Profile: 2008/09 Awards Magazine (Triangle Media Group)

Siblings

Manjinder and Paven Virk are both established actresses and writers.

Paven Virk has featured in films such as Bend it like Beckham and has written for film, TV and theatre including The Usual Auntijies (Belgrade Theatre), Borders (Tricylce Theatre), England's Lane (West Yorkshire Playhouse) and Who You Calling a Superhero (Hampstead Theatre). Paven was one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow in 2010.

Manjinder Virk has starred in TV films Bradford Riots and Britz and the award winning The Arbor and has written for film, TV and theatre including a short film she wrote and directed, Forgive. Manjinder was one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow in 2009.

Personal Life

Hardish is married to visual artist and teacher, Dilwara Begum.

Deesh 71 (talk) 12:23, 23 January 2012 (UTC)