Project Ahimsa Celebrates 4th Anniversary, Raises $15,000 for Youth Empowerment at Salvador Dali Museum
October 15, 2005
Project Ahimsa Celebrates 4th Anniversary, Raises $15,000 for Youth Empowerment at Salvador Dali Museum
Grammy Award Nominees, Children’s Performances, Silent Auction, and Ethnic Chic Beats and Dance Mark Successful Evening Raising Money for Music Educationand Katrina
(Tampa, Florida) – Project Ahimsa, a nationally recognized charity dedicated to a global effort to empower youth through music, raised $15,000 at an event celebrating its fourth anniversary and the launch of its Tampa Chapter on Saturday, September 17. A portion of the proceeds will help the Red Cross’s Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
The evening of music, art and hors d’oeuvres was held at the renowned Salvador Dali Museum, the permanent home of the world's most comprehensive collection of the celebrated Spanish artist's work, in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The evening’s youngest entertainers were the Culture Kids, children who have been exposed to world music in Project Ahimsa’s programs at Tampa’s Renaissance Center for the Arts; they performed original songs written for the occasion. Project Ahimsa recently created summer world music programs at the Renaissance Center, an institution that provides music and arts education for children from under-served populations in Tampa.
Headlining the entertainment for the evening was Grammy award nominee Shankar, the distinguished violinist/vocalist who has collaborated with eminent performers like Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Frank Zappa and Zakir Hussain, and has sold 20 million records in the process. Performing with Shankar was the LA Drum Cartel, featuring percussionists Ravi Drums and Robin DiMaggio; the three performers delivered a spectacular sonic synthesis.
Earlier in the evening, Astha Singhal, a dancer with the Los Angeles-based Taal Dance Company, enthralled attendees with her superbly choreographed performance, and DJs T-UrbanGroove, Nihal Mehta and Vijay Chattha (blacKMahal) kept the capacity crowd on its feet throughout the night. In the gallery, the sweet sounds of the Renaissance Latin Jazz Ensemble resonated in the ears of guests as they toured the museum’s elaborate collection.
Artist Juan-Pablo Parra donated his work to the silent auction that was held during the evening.
The main sponsor of the event was Naidip Capital. Primary sponsors were ASC Geosciences, Orion Communities, Suarez Financial, and Unity One Title and Land Group.
“The official launch of Project Ahimsa in Florida was a huge success. Project Ahimsa is grateful for the wonderful exposure and support from the local community and plans on creating numerous unique music programs in the Tampa Bay Area and around the world,” said Project Ahimsa co-founder Tejas Patel. “The kids were so excited by the DJs use of turntables for scratching and mixing that we plan to set up an electronic music program in Tampa, which will teach kids how to use the computer, mix records, and become future Ahimsa performers.”
For more information, visit www.projectahimsa.org.
About Project Ahimsa
Project Ahimsa, a global effort to empower youth through music, was co-founded in 2001 by entrepreneurs Tejas Patel, based in Tampa, Florida, and Vijay Chattha and Nihal Mehta, based in San Francisco, California. Project Ahimsa (which means non-violence in Hindi) is dedicated to fostering unity and peace through arts exchange and education.
By creating opportunities for youth to explore multi-cultural artistic expression, Project Ahimsa’s founders discovered they could empower youth in isolated, poor and fragmented communities. The organization’s programs, inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, create and support projects that help disadvantaged youth in both the United States (California, Florida, and Colorado) and India (Ahmedabad and Kolkata). Project Ahimsa is based in San Francisco and operates under the auspices of the Patel Foundation for Global Understanding (www.global-understanding.org) in Tampa.
For more information please contact:
Vijay S. Chattha / VSC PR / 415-305-6041 / ahimsa@vscconsulting.com
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