Organization

Cambodian Living Arts


Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) is a nonprofit that supports Cambodian artists and the arts sector in Cambodia, founded in 1998 by the musician Arn Chorn-Pond.[1][2] It began by pairing young students with surviving master artists to save endangered performing arts and rituals. It now gives grants, scholarships, fellowships and training to a new generation of artists and brings performances to rural communities.[3][1]

History

CLA says that 90 percent of Cambodia's artists did not survive the Khmer Rouge regime, leaving arts handed down between generations at risk of being lost.[4] Arn Chorn-Pond, a survivor of the genocide, returned to Cambodia in the 1990s and found traditional masters living in poverty with no clear future.[2][5] In 1998 he founded the organization, first called the Cambodian Master Performers Program, with five students learning from those masters.[3][4][1] The program ran arts classes with surviving masters in about seven cities and provinces, a "school without walls" in the countryside, so that their knowledge passed to younger people in their own communities.[1][6] CLA has supported these masters for life with monthly salaries and emergency funds.[1] For its first five years it was a program of the Marion Institute, and it then became an independent nonprofit.[7]

Its work changed as Cambodia and its arts scene grew. CLA added scholarships, fellowships and training, paid work through regular performances and festivals, and chances for international exchange, research and networking.[3][2] Its programs help artists and cultural leaders build careers and tell stories of contemporary Cambodia on local stages, in schools and community spaces, and to audiences abroad.[2] It set up the Arn Chorn-Pond Living Arts Scholarship in 2010.[8] In the spring of 2013 CLA organized Season of Cambodia, a festival at venues across New York City led by Phloeun Prim. It opened with a gathering of Buddhist religious workers and presented music, film, art and dance by more than 120 visiting Cambodian artists; Salzburg Global puts the number at hundreds, over six weeks.[9][6] Prim said the aim was for Cambodia to be known for its arts and culture, not only for the Killing Fields.[9]

In its next plans, CLA named creativity and innovation, links with neighbors in the Greater Mekong region and farther across Asia, arts and culture in public school education, cultural policy advocacy and more performance opportunities for Cambodian artists.[2][4] It marked its 25th anniversary with an event at the Royal Palace.[10] For 2026 to 2030 it set four priorities: the quality of contemporary Cambodian art, the capacity and sustainability of artists and grassroots cultural groups, artists' voices through digital technology, and regional and international collaboration.[10][11]

Programs

CLA supports artists in every art form. Its grants fund new work, community projects and international networking.[1] The Dam Dos Project Grant supports artists and raises their profile through digital platforms and public events. The Mobility Grant helps practitioners in any discipline take part in training, workshops, conferences, festivals, research presentations and residencies. The New Creation Fellowship pairs senior and emerging performing artists with regional experts for mentoring, hands-on creation and skills workshops, and ends in a public presentation of the new work.[10] Each year CLA holds the Amatak Awards for its grantees and scholarship students.[1]

The Arn Chorn-Pond Living Arts Scholarship gives emerging artists money and professional training. Its 2024 and 2025 students studied fields including theater, dance, choreography, painting, history, architecture, archaeology, media and Indigenous cultural work.[8][10] The Learning and Development program builds artists' knowledge, creative skills and leadership.[10] Through fiscal sponsorship, CLA gives independent artists and selected emerging arts groups legal, financial and administrative support while they get started, helping them reach funding and build their programs.[10][1]

Community outreach takes the arts to people with little access to them, most of all in rural areas. Village concerts bring music to remote communities, music demonstrations introduce rare instruments in villages, and provincial tours bring performances, talks and workshops so that local audiences can meet artists and see new work. Cultural tours and on-site presentations run through the year.[10] The Khmer Magic Music Bus carries music and demonstrations to villages without other access to the performing arts, and Arn Chorn-Pond remains closely involved with it.[3] CLA also arranges cultural delegations, school trips and private tours in Cambodia.[12]

Master artists

CLA lists these masters of its Master Performers Program.[1]

  • Man Men (1949 to 2024), classical wedding music
  • Norng Chak, Bassac opera
  • Suon San (1950 to 2017), chapei
  • Yeoun Mik (1939 to 2014), modern wedding music
  • Tep Mary (1933 to 2021), pinpeat
  • Sok Duch (1926 to 2017), classical wedding music
  • Khy Mom, yike
  • Kong Nai (1945 to 2024), chapei
  • Ieang Sithul, classical and folk dance
  • Ling Srey (1926 to 2014), kontoamming
  • Nhuch Hoeun, memm
  • Seng Norn, kontoamming (retired)

Organization

CLA is an initiative of Living Arts International (LAI), an international nonprofit that began in Cambodia as a grassroots, post-conflict organization. LAI's other initiatives are Mekong Cultural Hub, CLA's sister organization, which supports cultural practitioners across Asia, and Connecting South, which starts transnational cultural projects shaped by arts communities in post-conflict places.[1] LAI is a 501(c)(3) public charity in the United States, and its federal tax number is 45-5218362.[12] In New York, Mekong NYC hosts CLA artists in the United States and builds ties between CLA and people deported from the United States to Cambodia.[13]

A Supporters Program gives members online access to talks with CLA's leaders and artists, dance workshops and other Living Arts Experiences, offers on cultural tours to Cambodia and a bimonthly Living Arts eNewsletter.[12] Arn Chorn-Pond, a human rights activist, speaks at conferences, high schools and universities in the United States and abroad.[12]

Leadership

The organization lists this team and board.[1]

Executive team
  • Arn Chorn-Pond, founder and spokesperson
  • Yon Sokhorn, country director
  • Prim Phloeun, executive director, Living Arts International
  • Rudgard Frances, director, Mekong Cultural Hub
Program team
  • Thorn Seyma, community engagement and outreach program coordinator
  • Say Tola, grants program coordinator
  • Meth Monthary, scholarship program coordinator
  • Soeurn Manet, project coordinator
Marketing and fundraising
  • Phary Phacdey, head of marketing and fundraising
  • Suol Nary, marketing and communication coordinator
  • Reilly Miner, communications and outreach
  • Loy Sreynith, content creator
  • Thon Dika, videographer and editor
Operations and finance
  • Kuon Manith, head of finance
  • Kong Chanmanina, senior finance and operation coordinator
  • Hour Phaktra, finance coordinator
  • Nu Siphou, administration officer
  • Pich Panha, office assistant
Board of directors
  • Dr. Richard C. Helfer, chair
  • H.E. Veng Sereyvuth, chairman of Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia and former Minister of Culture and Minister of Tourism
  • Mary K. Read
  • Sokny Onn, country director of Epic Arts
  • Sophie Toan Ek, owner of Kravanh Restaurant

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Cambodian Living Arts, About
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cambodian Living Arts, Arn Chorn-Pond speaker one-pager (2023) (PDF)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Cambodian Living Arts, Arn Chorn-Pond
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Cambodian Living Arts, Arn Chorn-Pond biography (2023) (PDF)
  5. ↑ PAR Performing Arts Review, Season of Cambodia (August 20, 2024)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Salzburg Global Seminar, Phloeun Prim: Cambodia had to start from scratch
  7. ↑ Marion Institute, Cambodian Living Arts (2022)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cambodian Living Arts, Arn Chorn-Pond Living Arts Scholarship (closed)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 VOA Learning English, New York Celebrates the Arts of Cambodia (May 17, 2013)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Cambodian Living Arts, home page
  11. ↑ Cambodian Living Arts, home page (English)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Cambodian Living Arts, Support us
  13. ↑ Illumination Fund, Mekong NYC (2024)

Sources

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This page was last edited on 26 September 2026, at 23:16.