Promoting the Arts
Through our productions and the visitors program we work to expose a wide and diverse audience to Cambodia’s array of unique arts and culture. We also look to increase the engagement, understanding and appreciation of the arts and culture among the Cambodian people leading to a shared sense of what it means to be Cambodian.
PERFORMING PROGRAM
A large factor of our Arts Education programs is to produce professional troupes. The main goal of the Performing program is to enable CLA’s young artists to make a living from their work. We also want to to raise awareness in Cambodia and worldwide about Cambodian living arts and to participate in the creation of Cambodia’s cultural sector. We work with selected teachers and artists to develop business plans that help to transform their classes into self-sustaining, professional performance troupes. We are in the process of establishing various regular performances in order to create a stustainable model for the arts.
The Children of Bassac
Every Thursday at 7pm until April, in front of the National Museum, Phnom Penh.
In 2010, CLA established our first professional performance troupe, the Children of Bassac, a classical and folk dance troupe that has emerged from a CLA class.
Led by Master Ieng Sithul, one of Cambodia’s most well-known traditional theater singers and performers, the Children of Bassac are a dynamic group of 24 dancers aged 18 to 23. The troupe was created in 2003 with young Cambodians who all live in the Bassac community, where they practice every weekend. They perform traditional & folk dances from the repertory of Khmer and ethnic minorities’ cultures. Undoubtedly one of the most professional dance troupes in the city, the artists are dedicated to make Cambodian music and dance accessible to their audience. During last year’s dry season they attracted more than 1300 spectators who combined arts with a good cause: all of the proceeds go to these young artists who come from Phnom Penh’s Bassac slum area and to the master artists who teach the group. This show gives them the opportunity to perform and earn a living from their art. Since 2008, the Children of Bassac have toured to the United Kingdom, Japan and the U.S.
This December marked the start of their second season of weekly performances in front of the National Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. See the program of the show and learn more about the dances repertory!
Tickets:
$18/person
$15/person for 10 or more
$10/person for children under 12
NEW! $40 for families (2 adults and up to 3 children)
NEW! Take your old ticket and get a new one for 50%! This also applies to all guests who have been on a list or booked via e-mail.
Dinner & show package: $26/person (only adults, children can choose menu à la carte). Includes one set menu at Romdeng restaurant (creative Cambodian cuisine) at 5pm, pick-up by tuk-tuk and one ticket for the Children of Bassac performance at7pm.
Watch this video to learn more:
For more information or ticket reservations:
E-mail: events@cambodianlivingarts.org
Phone (Cambodia): 017-998-570
CAMBODIAN LIVING ARTS TOURS
Since the creation of CLA, various people – ranging from individual donors and social workers to casual visitors to Cambodia – have requested to visit one of our classes. We have recently developed this into a solid program, allowing informal visits providing rare insight into Cambodian culture, as well as opportunities to meet Master Artists and their students. It is an intimate experience, allowing visitors to observe first hand the realities of the work we do. Options include visiting classes focused in folkdance, various music ensembles, Yike opera, Smot chanting and shadow puppetry,
For more information on tours and schedule, read our Living Arts Tours brochure!
Booking:
E-mail: events@cambodianlivingarts.org
US Phone: (508)748-0816
Cambodia Phone: (855) 23 986 032
CAMBODIAN YOUTH ARTS FESTIVAL
The Cambodian Youth Arts Festival is a bi-annual event that brings together artists from all over Cambodia and the world to learn from each other through workshops and demonstration and hold public performances. In 2008, one of our first festivals drew 350 attendees and included collaborative production with four partner organizations. In 2010 the festival grew tremendously; CLA partnered with 23 other arts organizations to put on the festival. There were 500 attendees, and hundreds of additional observers who watched performances each day. Our next festival, to be held in November of 2012, will include artistic works that will travel to New York City in the spring of 2013 for Season of Cambodia.
SEASON OF CAMBODIA, NEW YORK, APRIL – MAY, 2013
From mid-April through mid-May of 2013, nearly 200 Khmer performing and visual artists from across Cambodia and around the world will fill New York City’s stages, screens, galleries, and outdoor public spaces with traditional and contemporary art as part of Season of Cambodia, a multi-disciplinary festival and symposium presented by Phnom Penh-based non-profit organization Cambodian Living Arts in partnership with some of Cambodia’s and New York City’s leading cultural and academic institutions. At venues including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, audiences will celebrate Cambodia’s millennia-old living cultural traditions—which today continue to be passed down from master artist to student and practiced in temples throughout the country—along with contemporary dance, music, film, photography, and painting. Shadow puppetry and apsara dance will bring to life the ancient epics, images of which are found on bas-reliefs of Cambodian temples dating back to the sixth century. For a requiem in memory of the two million Cambodians who died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, composer Him Sophy will weave together smot - a form of Khmer singing that is designed to assist the soul’s passage to the next life, with Western orchestral music. The premiere of the Requiem will coincide with the end of the second Khmer Rouge Genocide Trial. Asia Society will curate a conference at which artists and scholars will discuss and investigate the role of the arts in recovering cultural identity and healing post-conflict societies. Over the course of four weeks, Season of Cambodia will lay the groundwork for an impact extending well beyond 2013, creating a template for future events in other cities including Paris and Amsterdam, and demonstrating the power of the arts as an agent of positive social change.
