Prio Bangla- An overview of the organization:

Prio Bangla is a non-profit tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 community arts organization based in Arlington, Virginia. Our goal is to support and promote arts and culture in Arlington and beyond. We also aim to make sure that we maintain the quality, share cultural values and ensure the arts and cultural equity in the community working with multicultural organizations. Most of our programs are geared to support and promote arts, culture, and cultural equity.

Since October 2011, Prio Bangla has been working with community partners throughout the Northern Virginia and metro-D.C. region to increase understanding of the region’s multi-cultural diversity, enrich people’s lives via arts and cultural exchange, and contribute to building a better community. Our signature programs have included working with other multicultural performing groups to host our annual Multicultural Street Festival, Cultural Theatre producing theatrical performances, organizing art exhibitions, Arts & Cultural Workshops for young talented performers, and cultural leaders.  We also work to promote the importance of the ‘mother language’ movement through organizing our annual International Mother Language Day program. 

Throughout the year, we are developing and implementing our major programs with a focus on the following areas:

Bangladeshi Heritage:

Prio Bangla undertakes programs keeping in mind the Bangladeshi as well as South Asian communities and to celebrate their cultural heritage. But we are not limited to the South Asian community only, we have also kept our horizon wide open to share and promote arts and culture in the community to create a cohesive environment for promoting multicultural heritage to all.  

 Multi-Cultural Partnership:

We do promote arts and culture and develop our programs including festivals, dance shows, arts exhibitions, musical programs, theatre presentations, recitations etc. to go beyond cultural boundaries and share the artistic and cultural traditions with the people in our communities in Arlington and Northern Virginia. We partner with other Immigrants. Each and every immigrant community brings its rich cultural background, traditions, and heritage which can contribute to social development. Not only do cultural heritage and traditions enrich our community but also inspire us to bind together and believe in shared prosperity. By involving the immigrant communities, we strengthen our efforts and that paves the way for a more meaningful journey together and work together for the welfare of the communities. These kinds of programs and efforts also open the avenues for cultural exchanges and make them feel at home in this new land, they feel part of the community and feel motivated and encouraged to contribute to society.

Developing Our Next Generations:

We have undertaken programs, like virtual seminars for our new generations to disseminate our values including arts and culture in shaping up community life. We have put efforts into developing the programs to engage our new generations by teaching them the value of shared prosperity, arts and culture as well as humanitarian approaches to building a better community in Arlington and the DC metro area.

Cross-Cultural Benefit: 

Ultimately, we believe the arts and culture are important ways to increase cross-cultural tolerance, share values, and connect people bringing their own cultural roots as well as learning from each other’s cultural practices and heritage. Further, arts and cultural efforts strongly support social justice and equity.