On March 5th, over 200 artists and art enthusiasts gathered at the Dreams of Freedom Museum to celebrate the kick off of the 5th season of BNN TV 9 ‘It’s All About Arts’. This Boston show, which was founded by Glenn Williams and is hosted with Diana La Vigne, and has featured 300+ Boston artists including Classical Indian Dancer-Priya Natarajan, Song writer and Singer-Neil Shetty, Professional Indian Dancer & Teacher-Tara Ahmed, Traditional Indian Dancer-Aparna Rao, Internationally recognized musician-Dr Krishna Raghavendra. In addition to featuring local Indian artists, ‘It’s All About Arts’ highlights the activities and people behind Boston’s leading Indian art organizations & events like India Day at the Hatch Shell and the movement of award winning MIT Bhangra Dance troupe.

“We were able to meet lots of other artists at this event.” Notes lead singer Parul Vakani of Red Velvet Slide that performed at the event, “ Networking with other Boston musicians has been a positive experience for us.”

The evening included a wine & cheese reception, live music by various Indian musician including Manisha with Manisha Music & Parul Vakani with Red Velvet Slide, an awards presentation and a silent auction to benefit Samta, a non profit mentoring organization for Sothern Asian high school students.

At the awards ceremony, BNN founder, Glenn Williams & Executive Producer, Diana La Vigne passed out appreciation awards to their sponsors and their outstanding volunteers that use their personal and professional network to recruit show guests. Their efforts have resulted in booking 150+ guests for the upcoming season.

“We volunteer and support BNN TV 9 ‘It’s All About Arts’ because we believe in their goal to promote the arts.” States award recipient, Ravi Agarwal, “It is about the arts, not the awards. Still, I am very honored to receive this award and will continue to support their mission.”

At the end of the evening, Samta (www.samta.org) had raised $1,500+ and 100% of the contributions go directly toward Samta. Additionally, the Indian Association of Greater Boston had information on a table about their programming so attendees could find out how to get more involved.

The show is sponsored by Museums Boston Magazine & Innovative Moves. For more information, visit www.itsallaboutarts.com or to get more involved in Samta, visit www.samta.org.

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