About Us
Indian Arts Boston, Inc (IAB) is a Massachusetts based non profit organization, incorporated in July 2019. The organization’s principal offices are located at 70 Pope Road, Acton MA 01720 and it’s Employee ID Number (EIN) is 84-2568397.
The primary goal of IAB is promotion of heritage and contemporary performing arts from the Indian sub-continent in North America. We believe that India, with its 500 years of rich Eastern history, a confluence of world culture, a bedrock of creative thought leaders and a vibrant, contributing US based diaspora, has a lot to offer in terms of embracing diversity through cultural exchange, fostering innovation in arts and providing healing alternatives to a tired society. IAB aspires to achieve this mission through multiple artistic performances and outreach programs in literature, theater, painting, music, cuisine and interdisciplinary subjects inspired by Indian origin visual, literary and performing arts.
While IAB is a new organization, its founding team has significant experience in Indian art events. They founded a group called Calcutta Club USA in 2015 which among other charters, started experimental public events in literature, cinema, art and cuisine. The three key annual Calcutta Club inventions - Sanskriti Lit Fest, Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival and Cuisinart Culinary Contest & Art show - have become popular community events drawing thousands of patrons and art enthusiasts each year. This year, IAB organized the 5th Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival of Boston which was attended by about 800 people over 4 days.The initial goal of IAB, through December 2020 will be to manage and grow the current three public initiatives under its banner, to make the events more sustainable, attract dedicated volunteers, create a supportive board and raise money from grants, fundraisers and donations. Once the governance and financial structures are in place, IAB’s vision is to expand the scope of the programs for greater scale, better social impact and fulfilment of new, unmet needs through novel applications of Indian arts.
Specifically the mission of Indian Arts Boston is to:
- Create continuing awareness of diverse Indian art forms and skills in North America.
- Organize the annual Sanskriti Lit Fest and Book Fair to bring leading and emerging Indian origin authors and their works to Boston
- Organize the annual Caleidoscope Indian Film Festival of Boston to celebrate the best India related contemporary films while honoring talents filmmakers and movie artists in Boston
- Organize the annual Cuisinart Culinary Contest encouraging local home chefs to participate and create nostalgic Indian dishes in a healthy competition
- Organize an annual Indian art exhibition featuring primarily recent local Indian painters or others interested in South Asian artwork
- Drive conversations across multiple topics at the above public forums leading to innovation and new possibilities
- Cultivate an educated and engaged audience for the above events.
- Plan outreach programs through libraries and educational institutions abounding in Boston
- Improve population health through new opportunities in art therapy and alternative healing
- Create a network for all the various artistic disciplines to share information and ideas.
- Foster an exchange of artists and arts related information between South Asian and the United States.
