Aroon Shivdasani Executive & Artistic Director; Founding Member, Indo – American Arts Council, Inc. conceived and produced the first Festival of Indian Theatre in North America; annual Playwrights Festivals in conjunction with the Lark Theatre,; several film premiers, a film festival of New Films from India at MOMA, the annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) of Independent, diaspora, alternate and arthouse films from the Indian subcontinent; an annual Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora; an annual Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance; an annual IAAC Literature Festival, several book launches, as well as myriad fascinating theatre, film, dance, music, literary and fine arts events under the auspices of The Indo-American Arts Council. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards.

We had the pleasure to talk to Aroon and ask her some questions about the legacy of IAAC.

Q. Tell us how IAAC came into existence?
In 1998 there was a meeting at the Consulate of India [New York], and there we discovered that information about Indian artists was not shared and was not visible, yes there were some organizations like The Asia Society, Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan but they spoke to a converted audience, mainstream America did not know about them. It’s not that nobody knew about it, arts aficionado’s knew about Satyajit Ray, they knew about Ravi Shankar and that is as far as it went.

So we started the Indo-American Arts council as a not for profit arts organization purely because this isn’t a money making thing, it’s to give to the artist a platform to tell their stories and to display their talents. So we started 20 years ago and this year we celebrate 20 years of a wonderful film festival, dance festival, music concerts, literary festival, theatre, art exhibitions, I mean we do the gamut. And it has been wonderful because we have amazing artists in both emerging artists as well as veterans who like what we do and want to help support it.

Q. What pushed or inspired you every step of the way?
I love going to the theatre to opera, to music, to dance, as you know New York is full or arts, nowhere did I see an Indian or hear about an Indian artist. And that is amazing considering the centuries of culture we have in India. So, myself and a couple of others decided that we were gonna do something about that, and make sure that we presented Indian artists and Indian artistic disciplines performing visual and literary arts in mainstream venues. To present artists at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, at Hunter College, at all these various places in New York City where they could be seen and invite the public, do free events, make sure people know about them.

Q. How are you celebrating 20 years of IAAC?
Twenty years is quite a milestone, so we are going to do it on board the Cornucopia Majesty, which is a beautiful yacht, we are going to take off from Pier 81 on the West side and while we are sailing around the Manhattan Bay we will dine, we will dance, we got an amazing jazz band, a fashion show, we have Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s sons who will do one session with the jazz band. Our co-founder, Jonathan Hollander’s dancers will do a dance, Mira Nair will address the audience, Salman Rushdie will address the audience.