Masters Teaching
Cambodian Living Arts established its teaching program in 1999 to encourage surviving master musicians and performing artists to resume working with young apprentices.
The voice of Cambodia's traditional culture was almost silenced when the Khmer Rouge killed up to 90 percent of the country's artists and performers between 1975 and 1979. That cultural tragedy was compounded during the next two decades of economic hardship, when the few survivors could not resume either careers or teaching. The chain of masters and students that reached back a thousand years to Angkor was forced to skip a generation at a crucial time.
Traditionally, Khmer performing arts were passed down orally from teacher to apprentice through the generations, and so songs, dances, instrument-making, and other skills were not always written down or recorded. Consequently, when a master is lost, there is a risk that his or her knowledge will also be lost, unless it is first passed to the next generation of artists. Each surviving performer is a living cultural treasure with a unique body of skills and knowledge to pass on, a living library of Cambodia's cultural legacy.
To be eligible to teach in CLA's program, performers must have performed professionally before 1975, the year Pol Pot's regime began to purge artists. Recommendations about hiring are made by an advisory group of Cambodian cultural activists who consider factors such as skill level, age, teaching ability, and whether the artist's art form is rare or endangered.
In order to support these masters, CLA provides them with a classroom space, instruments, a living wage, transportation support, and basic medical care.
CLA students are provided a small monthly stipend which supports them to attend public school. CLA has also awarded two exceptionally gifted students university scholarships to pursue and deepen their studies at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, helping to support these students to become future masters of Khmer arts. Students are supported to cultivate artistic and earnings opportunities. They are also given the chance to travel and visit with other classes, and perform in front of each other, their parents, friends, and visitors.
People
Teachers
- Yim Saing
- Ieng Sithul
- Yoeun Mek
- Tep Mari
- Sok Duch
- 10 more teachers...
Students
[List all 17 people for Masters Teaching]From August 19-27, 2007, Cambodian Living Arts brought together 4 partnering organizations and over 350 different artists, students, and performers to the campus of our partner organization Phare, a circus and arts school in Battambang province, for the second annual Teaching and Learning Festival--or Mahasroap as a festival is known in Khmer.
[read more]info@cambodianlivingarts.org