Mosaic 2013 Report
The most successful South Asian event of North America, TD Mosaic 2013 breaks new grounds in Mississauga.
TD Mosaic 2013 presented a weeklong celebration of South Asian culture and arts that brought the top comedy, visual arts exhibition, music and dance performances, and a complete Film Festival to the city of Mississauga in the week of 11th till 17 of August 2013. The festival presented over 200 local artists and a number of international artists making it the most versatile and diverse event of the year in Canada. Bollywood singing sensation Harshdeep Kaur presented a full 2 hour concert on the glamorous stage of Celebration Square followed by the power packed dance performances by Bollywoods favourite dance choreographer, Shiamak Dawar. The grand finale culminated with thousands of attendees dancing to the latest bollywood music and songs.
Friday night Canada’s biggest south Asian band, JOSH performed in front of over 25000 visitors a full concert with 12 musicians and a local church choir. Their performance preceded a stunning sitar and guitar jazz fusion band from Montreal and Toronto that recently received the best performance award at Montreal Jazz festival. Minister of citizenship and immigration expressed his delight at attending the festival that has pioneered the South Asian art and culture festivals in Mississauga and has maintained its high standards of artistic representation in original and authentic artistic expressions.
He congratulated the festival team and organizers for developing a dynamic team of volunteers who have over last eight years managed to grow into the largest multi disciplinary arts festival of North America representing the best in South Asian art and culture.
Mayor of Mississauga praised the festival with her usual pep and energy after cutting the ribbon and announcing the festival opened along with members of the City council, local MPPs and MPs and other dignitaries including the funders , Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Canadian Immigration and Citizenship, and TD Bank the Festival title sponsor and Chevrolet Canada, the festival gold sponsor.
Canadian Community Arts Excellence in Arts Awards were presented to two well known contributors to the Canadian society. Honorable Reminder Gill received the Excellence in Art Service Award for his contribution towards establishing and declaring month of May as South Asian Heritage Month in Canada that was presented as a private member’s bill and was then approved and adopted by the Parliament in 2006 and Excellence in Arts Award was presented to the senior Canadian Artist Panchal Mansaram for his artistic contribution of the society. Mansaram had a show going on at the Art Gallery of Mississauga at the same time and visitors to the festival had an opportunity to enjoy his works at the same time.
VIRSA, the visual arts segment of Mosaic Festival presented a retrospective show by Jimmy Engineer, a senior painter from Pakistan who has made an indelible impression on generations of South Asians by working on subjects of peace harmony and historical representation of the subcontinent. His exhibition was attended by a large number of Canadian Parsi and Zoroastrian communities along with art aficionados of GTA who enjoyed this month long exhibition at Promenade Gallery. During that time various artist talks and presentations were also made by the curators and the artists.
Mosaic International South Asian Film Festival in its 7th year became an independent festival that showcased both local and international films from emerging talents around the world. Three major screenings of feature films were presented to packed audience at Empire Theatre Mississauga while the shorts , documentary films and short features were presented in the Rogers theatre of Living Arts centre. Festival was able to sustain its self with robust ticket sales and impressive line-up of sponsors and supporters. The festival also presented the first ever world premiere of a film in the city of Mississauga that turned out to be a lavish red carpet affair attended by bollywood personalities and industry professionals.
News of TD Mosaic 2013 is still making waves with its power packed performers from Canada and around the world.. the highest quality event in north America covering bollywood and independent music ,film and dance presentation.. join our facebook page and be proud of the achievements of South Asian Art and culture in north America.
