“I have endured moments of suffering and loneliness, but I have never given up the dream of a better world. I have walked out of the steps of the Royal Palace to stand in mud and pain… but I have never lost my passion to carry our arts through these challenging times.” Neak Krou Savay…

On the 10th anniversary of the Arn Chorn-Pond Living Arts Scholarship the 2021 cohort visit Jombok Hoas Adventure Learning Center with Arn Written by Danielle KHLEANG and photographed by THORN Dika. Quotes have been edited lightly for length and clarity. Before the latest wave of COVID-19 infections rattled daily life in Cambodia again, the 2021…

To contextualize the new works commissioned for the 2020 Cultural Season, the  Knowledge, Networks and Policy  (KNP) team at Cambodian Living Arts designed interactive programs to open dialogue between the public, community stakeholders and artists about the meaning and messages behind the works and their implications for Cambodian society. I sat down with SO Phina,…

Earlier this month, in collaboration with Arts Emerson, we held the Arts & Healing: Bangsokol Virtual Festival as a response to the global crises of 2020. Inspired by Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia — the first major symphonic work to address the traumas of late 1970s Cambodia which acts as a visible memorial for peace…

Impressions of Dark: University Students’ Reflections Amidst the Cultural Season’s exploration of identity, in this two part interview series, we feature reflections from young people shaping the boundaries of tomorrow, today. In a country where 47 percent of the  population is under the age of 25 and another 41 percent was born after 1976, all eyes…

CHOUNG Veasna: An Interview with one of Phnom Penh’s Emerging Choreographers Amidst the Cultural Season’s exploration of identity, in this two part interview series, we feature reflections from young people shaping the boundaries of tomorrow, today. It was four days before the full performance of Dark when I met CHOUNG Veasna on a sunny afternoon…

DIVERSE MEETINGS: SAMPEAS KRU & THE CULTURAL SEASON Across the world, every culture has its own ways of paying respect to the past. Sampeas Kru, in Cambodia, is a blessing ceremony typically done at the beginning of a performance to honor the spirits of teachers passed who transmitted their knowledge to the next generations. This…

On March 18th, the Cambodian government delivered clear instructions that all performing arts venues, cinema, and KTV must temporarily close in an attempt to stop the rise of Coronavirus in the country. That evening, the lights went on for Cambodian Living Arts’ last performance of “Earth and Sky,” a traditional Cambodian dance performed at the…