{"id":321,"date":"2018-10-31T15:25:08","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T15:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/?page_id=321"},"modified":"2018-10-31T15:25:08","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T15:25:08","slug":"esther-mogada","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/we-are-belfast\/esther-mogada\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther Mogada"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Esther
\nPhoto Credit: Brendan Gallagher themarketingphotographer.co.uk<\/a><\/div>\n

Esther Mogada is a co-founder of Creating a Space<\/a>, Melt Fashion Collective<\/a>, and Inspire the Sound<\/a>. After A-Levels at Newtownbreda High School, Esther studied Fashion & Textiles at Ulster University. She ascribes her love of textiles to her African background and the hands-on, tactile work needed. She\u2019s also comfortable with taking a risk and exploring ideas: \u201cI enjoy not really knowing what the outcome will be but trusting that I\u2019ll get to something, whatever it is, based on what I\u2019m feeling or the artists I\u2019m researching at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Half-Irish, half-Ugandan, and born in Sudan, she has lived in Belfast, Egypt, and Dublin. Her work spans collaborative projects across events, video production, and fashion. Collectively, they represent Esther\u2019s desire to support people with different outlooks: \u201cAll of the people I work with feel like the outsiders, where people are looking at us, and there is a little element of holding yourself back or making your work smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What is the challenge you\u2019re working to address in Belfast?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a mixture of challenges, but they all circle back to a particular mindset and a lack of confidence. Lots of people in Belfast aren\u2019t really open to difference so there\u2019s a very conformist attitude. It\u2019s not just about race but even about personal style. At the time I graduated, we were told to move to London if we wanted to be credible. I always hoped to leave here. But I\u2019ve realised that the beauty of Belfast is its place where you can create what you want because it hasn\u2019t necessarily all been done before. The pace of life is slower. It\u2019s cheaper than London. So, from a creative viewpoint, you get the time to build your craft. But, the city needs to recognise that different is good to make \u2018more\u2019 possible. We have to find ways to represent difference as part of what is happening here, and to break down the attitude that things need to happen in a certain way.<\/p>\n

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Belfast needs to be a city that attracts people, where people want to stay, and where people feel like they\u2019re able to do anything they put their minds to if we want it to be more prosperous. We know it\u2019s a reflection of the city\u2019s politics and history, but it feels like we\u2019re stuck in time-warp. It\u2019s slowly beginning to change with my generation, but there are still so many roadblocks to imagining the biggest possible future and declaring \u2018I want to create this, no matter how crazy it is\u2019. The biggest of those is a lack of confidence in what we can do. It\u2019s the question that implies \u2018who do you think you are?\u2019 or the dismissive statement that says \u2018that\u2019s not possible\u2019. And that gets reinforced by so many people leaving for other cities\u2019, which results in a reduced diversity of ideas and an invisibility of difference.<\/p>\n

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How are you thinking and doing differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Representation and having effective support systems are really important. Seeing yourself represented can inspire you to step out from what you\u2019re doing to try something new. People don\u2019t realise how powerful representation is! It gives the encouragement in the first instance, but it also helps to show people on a broader city basis that there\u2019s more to Belfast than the obvious.<\/p>\n

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All three of the companies that I\u2019m involved with are about building representation and supporting people who want to celebrate what\u2019s different: they\u2019re about creating foundations for us and future generations while building on the foundations that are already here. Creating a Space is an events management and video production company. But it\u2019s an umbrella to be able to collaborate with other artists. It means that the projects we deliver closely match our ethos; they somehow share our message of \u2018if you\u2019re an outsider, it\u2019s okay\u2019, they advocate for diversity, and they encourage inclusivity and advocate for trusting the process. As a company, we\u2019re trying to spark conversations in Belfast and build a platform for more people to get involved in those conversations. So, we\u2019ve delivered panel talks in partnership with Blick. The first was part of WomenFolk, involving a diverse range of women from the design industry and focusing on people at the start of their career. The second was an all mens panel, talking about masculinity and how that affects your work and so on.<\/p>\n

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Lots of what I\u2019m involved with has come about because of frustration. But rather than simply wishing it was different, some of us have been entrepreneurial. We\u2019ve responded to opportunities. We\u2019ve gathered like minded people and done something. Melt Fashion Collective, for example, is a group of five designers at the very start of our careers. There was no avenue for us to showcase our work so we decided to do a fashion show. We\u2019ve now delivered three shows. They are as much about delivering a showcase in a different way, we don\u2019t do a traditional runway show, for example, as about focusing on empowering creatives in the industry. It\u2019s us building a support system, not just for people in fashion, but people who want to express themselves \u2018differently\u2019 from the traditional ways. Eventually, the big dream is to have a space that would house this activity, house the events, house designers, even do some of the production there.<\/p>\n

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What will make a Successful Belfast for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A successful Belfast will be when different approaches are seen as a good thing. It will be when the diversity of what\u2019s really happening in the city is effectively represented and communicated. The more we can represent ourselves, that will be an avenue to change mindsets. It\u2019s not about saying different is good for the sake of different, but simply about the city recognising and supporting how the city\u2019s story is changing and needs to keep changing. Belfast is my home. My experience of here is very positive. I want to be a part of what\u2019s happening in my home and for my work to help support that change in mindset. Ultimately, I believe that a successful Belfast will be when we can dream big, and take ownership of it without feeling guilty. That\u2019s something I\u2019d like to help make happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo Credit: Brendan Gallagher themarketingphotographer.co.uk Esther Mogada is a co-founder of Creating a Space, Melt Fashion Collective, and Inspire the Sound. After A-Levels at Newtownbreda High School, Esther studied Fashion & Textiles at Ulster University. She ascribes her love of textiles to her African background…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":214,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324,"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/321\/revisions\/324"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.successfulbelfast.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}