Artists Association of Orissa, AAO is the oldest and most active non-government organization dedicated to promoting artists in visual art in Odisha state. It is popularly known as AAO, which was officially established in 1992 at Cuttack under the chairmanship of Prof. Byomakesh Mohanty, a senior lecturer at B.K. College of Art and Crafts, Bhubaneswar. Initially, it was formed to promote young artists of this cultural state Odisha. Gradually artists of different generations came closer to AAO, which proved the widespread acceptance of artists of Orissa.