Ra-Ve Cultural Foundation

Thank you for considering a gift to the Ra-Ve Cultural Foundation!

Our mission is to share and celebrate traditional Indian performing arts with the Northwest Arkansas community. Through real world experiences, inspiring performances, community showcases, classes, food, or jam sessions the Ra-Ve Cultural Foundation sponsors events, provides education, and offers training in the arts and culture of India.

We promote the rich traditional Indian performing arts in the Northwest Arkansas (NWA) region—dance, music, and theater—by inspiring people to learn, teach, and sustain these arts. We are committed to bringing the finest practitioners of Indian music and dance to NWA in live performance. These concerts are highly popular for Indian and non-Indian audiences alike—but they come at a cost.

Unusually among non-profit arts organizations, Ra-Ve pays competitive artist fees and underwrites all the costs of their travel, meals, and lodging. We are proud of our financial commitment to the art and the artists, and from our first day we have ensured that the dancers and musicians are fairly compensated for the many years of skill they bring to the region.

The Majority of the budget for the artist fees goes towards local artist in the Northwest Arkansas Region. Often times these artist are called upon to provide their skills for local community performances representing their culture for free. Ra-Ve has changed that inequity by establishing a basic stipend for all artist presenting Indian Culture in the community. The funds we receive from you will help to ensure that those costs are met.

In just five years, Ra-Ve has built a record that we are proud of, with a strong repertoire of classes and performances. There is so much more, however, that can be done. Indian music and dance have grown and developed for centuries in India, but until a few years ago these art forms were virtually unknown in NWA. You can help to ensure that our vision of a vibrant Northwest Arkansas community, in which Indian culture is a valued dimension, is realized.

We will use these funds to consolidate and enhance our ongoing teaching curricula and season of performances by:

• Sustain bringing high quality performances by the most respected musicians and dancers from USA and India.
• Offering quality classes for learning Indian performing arts.
• Providing a platform for local artists to gain confidence and practice their skills.
• Collaborating with other local arts organizations.
• Supporting local artists.

We will use these funds as well to explore new opportunities to bring Indian music, dance, and theater to NWA by:

• Increasing our outreach to non-Indian populations.
• Increasing our collaborations with public and private educational institutions.
• Developing lesson plans for art and music teachers in K-12 schools.
• Updating and adding to the media and audio-visual equipment at our studio, the Kalaloka Institute of Fine Arts (KIFA).
• Providing more and better-equipped spaces for students to practice their skills.
• Hiring additional staff at levels appropriate to our growth.
• Providing a multi-state forum for Indian organizations across the region (Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma).

Northwest Arkansas is blessed with a rich legacy of music: country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, blues, and R&B. Until recently, however, there was little in the way of an international note in this home-grown symphony.

That began to change as the population of NWA began to include families from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and other areas of the world. These natives of far-distant countries found themselves in a new home, with a strange language, strange food, strange customs—and strange music. They yearned for the vibrant rhythms, dance, and sounds of home.

Instead of just accepting the lack of Indian music and dance in NWA, two women, Srividya Venkatasubramanya and Nandhini Varadaraj did something about it. In 2009 they organized Sargam, an annual celebration of Indian classical music and dance. Sargam created demand in the NWA community for more performances, and it soon became clear that there was a need for an organized approach to meet that demand. Out of this need was born the Ra-Ve Cultural Foundation in 2018, a 501(c3) organization.

Our growth since then reflects our success. Programming has grown six-fold, from four events in 2018 to over 30 events, with a total audience participation of more than 5000 (in-person and online). We have actively sought out collaborations with the leading arts organizations in NWA, and have been integral to the success of such major productions as Baala: A Tale of Kanha, The Jungle Book, and the upcoming TuLA: The Balance of Life.

But there is so much more we can do! Your generous support strengthens our base of patrons and volunteers. But we also know that there is a desire in the non-Indian community to learn more about these beautiful art forms. We have seen increasing numbers of people in our audiences who previously had little or no knowledge of Indian dance and music; once exposed to it, they want more of it. By donating to Ra-Ve, you are helping to provide them with the rich panoply that is Indian music and dance.

The ancient traditions of Indian performance art have sustained millions of people for thousands of years. Those who grew up with it, and those who have not, deserve the classes and artists that the Ra-Ve Cultural Foundation brings to Northwest Arkansas. Your dollars will greatly aid us as we continue to realize that vision.