Making Arts Accessible in Rural Areas of Cambodia
This article is the result of the research conducted by Tola SAY during the e-residency Virtual Crossovers, organised in April 2021 by ASEF and ENCACT, the European network for cultural management and policy. Tola worked closely with her mentors Carla Figueira and Musa Igrek to understand how arts can become more accessible to local communities in Cambodia. Here is what she discovered.
Chapei Master Kong Nai
Growing up in Pursat, in the western part of Cambodia, in the early 2000s, my daily life was accompanied by the songs of influential singers from the 1960s such as Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, and Pen Ran. These songs continue having deep power and meaning for Cambodians like myself in the present – especially because so many farmers, scholars, and artists, including the ones mentioned, were killed during the Democratic Kampuchea regime (1975-1979) known globally as the Khmer Rouge.