{"id":5729,"date":"2026-07-24T07:21:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/?p=5729"},"modified":"2026-07-29T07:28:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:28:43","slug":"arn-chorn-pond-global-ambassador-of-arts-for-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/news\/arn-chorn-pond-global-ambassador-of-arts-for-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Arn Chorn-Pond: Global ambassador of arts for peace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arn Chorn-Pond: Global ambassador of arts for peace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arn Chorn-Pond is a musician, survivor of the Cambodian genocide, human rights activist, and the founder of the organization that is now Living Arts International. Born into a family of artists, Arn grew up in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. During this period, he was separated from his family, sent to a child labor camp, and forced to play propaganda music. He later escaped to a refugee camp on the Cambodia\u2013Thailand border, where he was adopted by Reverend Peter Pond and resettled in New Hampshire, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1984, Arn became the first Cambodian child soldier to speak publicly about the Cambodian genocide, addressing an audience of 10,000 people at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Inspired by his own experiences, he co-founded Children of War<\/strong>, an organization supporting young people affected by war, child abuse, poverty, racism, and divorce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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While studying at Brown University and later graduating from Providence College, Arn continued his commitment to youth leadership and community development. He co-founded the Southeast Asian Big Brothers\/Big Sisters of America Association<\/strong> in Providence and established Peace Makers<\/strong>, a gang intervention program for Southeast Asian youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating from Providence College, Arn returned to Cambodia with a mission to reconnect with his family’s artistic legacy, find his music teacher from the Khmer Rouge era, and search for the celebrated performers he had admired as a child. Instead, he found that the few surviving master artists were living in poverty, and many traditional performing arts were on the brink of disappearing. Following the Khmer Rouge regime, an estimated 90% of Cambodia’s artists had perished, placing centuries-old artistic traditions at risk of being lost forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1998, Arn successfully persuaded a few of his closest friends in the USA to donate funds so he could start a project to get these artists teaching again. Starting with just 4 teachers, and five students, they got going. Very quickly the project grew, and inspired by Arn\u2019s vision and deep belief in the power of arts for transformation, the project turned into an organisation – Cambodian Living Arts (CLA). <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first decade, CLA continued to focus on the urgent grassroots work of preserving endangered performing arts and cultural traditions by reconnecting surviving masters with a new generation of students. But Arn always had a bigger dream, and as Cambodia continued to recover and develop after the war, CLA expanded its work to be able to support young artists with scholarships, fellowships, professional training, employment opportunities through performances and festivals, and international exchanges, research, and networking opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Arn\u2019s passion is art and music, especially his beloved Khmer Magic Music Bus, everything he has done is underpinned by a wish for peace, safety and compassion in the world. His honors include the Reebok Human Rights Award<\/strong> (1988), Amnesty International Human Rights Award<\/strong> (1991), Kohl Foundation International Peace Prize<\/strong> (1993), and the Spirit of Anne Frank Outstanding Citizen Award<\/strong> (1996). These values shaped how he approached starting CLA, and are inbuilt into the DNA of the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is from these intertwined roots, in art and community, that CLA grew its work beyond borders, and in 2014 was able to incorporate as Living Arts International. Since 2018 LAI has been operating the Mekong Cultural Hub, a network of thousands of artists across Southeast Asia, with >300 fellows, >150 exchanges and 15 publications under its belt. LAI has also piloted initiatives across Asia and Africa, including the South-South Arts Fellowships and An AI Of Our Own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Arn\u2019s wish that the work of CLA could become a model for other post-conflict countries, today LAI is an international platform for Arts for Transformation, connecting the knowledge and experience of Cambodian Living Arts and Mekong Cultural Hub with wider conversations about conflict transformation, equity, community resilience, and the role of the living arts in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A unique founder who remains deeply connected to the work but puts full trust in his team, Arn lives outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he continues to champion the role of arts and culture in healing communities, preserving heritage, and inspiring future generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arn Chorn-Pond: Global ambassador of arts for peace Arn Chorn-Pond is a musician, survivor of the Cambodian genocide, human rights activist, and the founder of the organization that is now Living Arts International. Born into a family of artists, Arn grew up in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime. During this period, he was separated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5729"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5738,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5729\/revisions\/5738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}