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Artist wins Nottingham Creative Business Awards

2 October 2008 An artist seeking to understand his Indian heritage has been named overall winner of the Nottingham Creative Business Awards.

Hetain Patel also won the Visual Arts category at last night's ceremony, held at the city's Council House.

Ten creative enterprises won awards at the event, which puts the spotlight on an emerging sector of the city economy that already employs thousands of people.

Other winners included fashion designers, architects, film-makers, photographers and graphics and advertising companies.

More than 150 businesses put their names forward for the awards, before a three-month search for the winners.

Judges whittled the entrants down to three finalists in each category, with Nottingham Creative Business Awards chairman Mark Shaw praising Mr Patel as a shining example of the kind of creative talent the awards have been seeking to highlight.

He said: "Hetain Patel distills all that is amazing about true creativity.

"There is magic and innovation in his work. There is real depth in what he does. And this depth of thinking and communicating is just beginning to emerge in the work of a few businesses within the creative industries.

"Hetain Patel and his work represent the essence of how the creative industries are beginning to need to consider their impact.

"Here is someone who is not only a great ambassador for Nottingham, but a creative who inspires. And right now, it is inspirational creativity that will help the reputation of Nottingham expand around the world."

"It sounds pretentious I know, but we live in a great city and there are some truly great people working here. It is time for Nottingham to become recognised for what exists here."

Explaining the theory behind his work, Mr Patel said: "When my parents came to the UK in the 1960s they brought with them an ideal of India.

"And as India continued to develop, this romanticised ideal was the one which was passed down to me. This is of course a common story among generations of British-born immigrants.

"The dislocation of Indian culture naturally does not sit well with my British sensibilities.

"However it is these very sensibilities that I wish to challenge. If the Western influence of my birthplace is embedded in my way of thinking and the physical mannerisms of my body, is it possible to retrain these ways of understanding the world with an Indian code?"

Last night's awards were attended by more than 200 people and saw prizes given to a range of creative enterprises.

Among them was Suzi Henson, whose lingerie and bridalwear business Eternal Spirits already has a celebrity following.

Source: Nottingham Evening Post

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