User:Cre8iv80studio/Mosaic Festival

Mosaic Festival also known as Mosaic - South Asian Heritage Festival of Mississauga in Ontario, Canada, founded by Arshad Mahmood, is North America's largest free multidisciplinary arts festival featuring South Asian culture. Canadian Community Arts Initiative's primary objective is to work towards promotion of arts and culture in the Canadian community. CCAI is governed by a 10-member board of directors. All CCAI board positions are voluntary.

History The festival began in 2005 and is organized by Canadian Community Arts Initiative (CCAI) an Ontario-based non-profit organization. Asma Arshad Mahmood, a professional artist from Mississauga was the first chairperson of CCAI and Mosaic festival director. Asma stepped down as festival director after 6 years in 2011, replaced by Anupama Vittal. Mosaic Festival is the premiere event organized by CCAI to foster the arts and culture in Canada and showcases South Asian and other cultural influences that make Canada a rich country in its multicultural aspirations. CCAI supports other arts and cultural organizations including Mosaic Peoples choice award for MARTYs, MAC awards, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Anokhi Magazine, "Rock the Coliseum" Indie Music festival of Mississauga, Underground garage sale and Mosaic Excellence in Arts, Mosaic Excellence in Art patronage and Mosaic Volunteer award annually during Mosaic Festival.

Mosaic is a multidisciplinary arts festival that brings various ethnic groups of South Asian origin together to celebrate the language and arts and culture of almost 3 billion people of the world. A free festival, it presents cutting edge fusion, high value entertainment and a professionally managed event that rivals with any mainstream festival of north America. Organized by a team of volunteer board members and a team of over 100 volunteers, the festival attracts a huge corporate support making it more independent of government funding each year. festival receives funding from Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage, Trillium foundation and other provincial sources. For more information about the organization please visit ..www.mosaicfest.com

The first Mosaic festival took place on May 20 and 21 2006 at  old Civic Square in the heart of Mississauga City next to the Square One. The old Civic Square was replaced by a multi-million dollar Celebration Square in 2011 thanks to a government infrastructure grant. The new Square is the largest such facility in the Greater Toronto Area. While the  first Mosaic festival attracted almost 2,800 visitors, there has been a steady climb in the numbers of visitors and since the new square was developed. Mosaic 2007 was held in June and  attracted over 18,000 visitors during two days. In 2008 attendance grew to 30,000, in 2009 38,000, in 2010 over 50,000 and in 2011, 2012  Mosaic attendance grew to over 60,0000 making it the largest such festival of North America.Over the years the festival has presented hundreds of artists including Oliver Rajamani from Austin, Texas, SWAMI from UK, RDB and Nindy Kaur from UK, Vidha and Abhimanyu Lal from India, S W Storm, Josh, Bilz and Kashif, Ustad Irshad Ahmed Khan, Ustad Anwer Khurshid, Shahid Ali Khan and BBC Folk Voice Legendary Sayein Zahoor Ahmed, Shiamak's Indo Jazz Dance  seventh generation Patiala Gharana singer and Bollywood super sensation Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan and many bright stars of south Asian entertainment