Phloeun Prim: Visionary Leader in Arts and Culture
Living Arts International Executive Director
Phloeun Prim is a visionary leader in the field of arts and culture, with 25 years of experience guiding culture-focused NGOs to develop sustainable hybrid business models and championing the arts as a vehicle for transformation in post-conflict societies. He represents a unique brand of cultural leadership emergent from the global south that is compassionate, collaborative, and practice-based, effortlessly bridging the local and global in both directions. Educated in Canada and professionally shaped in Cambodia, Phloeun has a strong ability to mobilize networks from grassroots organizations to multinational institutions and anything in between, allowing him to act in multiple sectors and dimensions at scale.
Phloeun’s career began as part of the founding team of Artisans d’Angkor, a social enterprise specializing in high-end crafts, where he spent almost 10 years as commercial director and COO. He left in 2008 to join Cambodian Living Arts as Executive Director, but returned to serve on the board. Following a near collapse during the pandemic, Phloeun guided the organization through a buyout in 2023 aimed at reimagining itself as a cultural luxury brand. Now serving as a consultant, Phloeun’s vision goes beyond Artisans d’Angkor to a broader transformation of the city of Siem Reap as a global hub of creativity and cultural innovation.
As ED of CLA, Phloeun led the NGO’s evolution from focusing on cultural preservation to becoming a catalyst institution supporting the development of Cambodia’s art ecosystem. Recognizing the potential to use CLA’s example as a template for other post-conflict societies, Living Arts International was registered in 2014, enabling the establishment of an additional regional program, Mekong Cultural Hub. In 8 years of work, MCH has built a network of >300 Fellows across Southeast Asia, and works with artists, grassroots groups and strategic regional allies to empower its community to bring to life their visions for a sustainable and inclusive Asia. Now in 2025, Living Arts International represents the next expansion of the vision to the broader global south and other post-conflict societies.
Working on a global scale is not new for Phloeun, however, who has been spearheading multinational collaborations for close to fifteen years. Under his leadership, CLA organized Season of Cambodia in 2013, a month-long festival of Cambodian culture at New York’s most prestigious institutions, and the production of Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia, a multidisciplinary stage production that premiered at the Melbourne Arts Centre and was subsequently presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Philharmonie de Paris, and most recently the Place des Arts in Montreal.
Phloeun’s on-the-ground experience has been acknowledged by his selection to multiple boards, expert panels, and speaking engagements at some of the world’s top platforms for culture, including UNESCO’s Mondiacult, Culture Summit Abu Dhabi, and Salzburg Global Seminar. He’s also brought his practical knowledge to the academic sector, teaching annually a curriculum on Arts for Transformation at NYU Abu Dhabi’s coveted J-term.
Never content to stay still, Phloeun has a strong reputation for dreaming big – and then following it up by finding the right team and the right support to make it happen. His latest project is An AI of Our Own, an initiative that responds directly to the critical need identified by leading cultural institutions of working with and for communities on AI-driven tools. At the same time, he aims to establish Living Arts International as a leading global cultural organization, characterized by the same vision of arts for transformation and a strong global south-centric focus.