Organization

Royal University of Fine Arts

The Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) is a public arts university in Phnom Penh, run under Cambodia's Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts.[1][2] It teaches architecture and urbanism, archaeology, music, plastic arts and choreographic arts. It is the main school of Cambodian classical dance, and with the ministry's arts department it is one of the chief keepers of Khmer performing traditions.[1][3] Its campus stands beside the National Museum of Cambodia and the Royal Palace.[2]

A green signboard with the university's seal and its name in Khmer and English above a gate under trees.
The sign at the gate of the Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh.

History

School of Cambodian Arts

The university traces its origins to an arts school created by a royal decree of King Sisowath. The French Governor of Indochina sent the artist George Groslier to organize it. Artists from the Royal Palace's own arts school, founded in 1912, moved to the new school as its teachers.[4] The university's own history gives December 14, 1917 for the founding decree and says the school began work gradually in 1918. Asia Society's 2001 tour notes date the School of Arts to 1919.[4][1]

Work on the buildings began in 1918, and King Sisowath opened the museum and the school on April 13, 1920. The school had sections for wood carving, smithing, metal casting, silk weaving, dance and music.[4]

University, closure and reopening

In 1965 King Norodom Sihanouk established the Royal University of Fine Arts by royal decree. It had five faculties: plastic arts, choreographic arts, music, archaeology, and architecture and urbanism. The Khmer Rouge closed the university in 1975, together with all other schools and religious and cultural institutions.[1][4]

The School of Fine Arts reopened after the Khmer Rouge period. Asia Society and Kang Rithisal give 1980 for the reopening; the university's own history dates the decision to May 9, 1980 and the opening ceremony to January 27, 1981.[1][5][4] A sub-decree of October 5, 1988 made it the University of Fine Arts again.[4][1] It was later renamed the Royal University of Fine Arts. Asia Society's 2001 tour notes give 1993 for the renaming, and the university's own history gives 1994.[1][4]

Faculties and programs

The university's Department of Foundation Year teaches first-year students before they go on to its five faculties: archaeology, architecture and urbanism, choreographic arts, music and plastic arts.[6] The university also runs a research center for culture and science.[2]

Students who finish the Secondary School of Fine Arts can go on to a bachelor's degree at the university or join the ministry's Department of Performing Arts as government artists. The university both teaches and produces new work, but its production budget allows two or three works a year at best. Government funds cover salaries and office costs, and international support sometimes makes productions possible.[5] Kang Rithisal calls the university an important base for arts education after the civil war. Amrita Performing Arts has produced works by the university.[5]

Dance and performing arts

The Faculty (or college) of Choreographic Arts covers dance, theater and circus. The university and the Department of Arts often share staff and take part in joint projects and tours, but the university is set apart by its teaching role.[1] Over the twenty years before 2001, the university notated and recorded musical pieces. In the 1950s and 1960s its artists began learning and documenting village performance traditions.[1] Robam nesat (របាំនេសាទ), the fishing dance, is one of the new dances created at the university. The choreographer Vann Sun Heng made it in 1967 under Chheng Phon's supervision, and its young men and women dance with woven bamboo fishing baskets and bell-shaped fish traps.[7]

Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc. writes that the university's curriculum lets a dancer master only one of the three major female roles in the dance dramas.[8]

Its students perform at national events. On May 20, 2025, about three dozen students acted in reenactments of Khmer Rouge brutality and performed Victory Day dancing at the Day of Remembrance at Choeung Ek.[9]

Tours

Tours by the university's dance company include the following.

  • 1990: a tour of the United States by teachers and students of the University of Fine Arts, the first large-scale tour of Cambodian work there since 1971. Cambodian-American Heritage lists Los Angeles, Seattle, St. Paul, Lowell, New York City and Washington, D.C.; Cambodian Celestial Dance also lists Long Beach and Portland.[1][8][10]
  • 2001: Dance: the Spirit of Cambodia, a United States tour whose producers were Asia Society, Lisa Booth Management and the New England Foundation for the Arts. Proeung Chhieng was its artistic director, and it took more than 30 artists to 11 cities. The program included Robam Apsara, created under Queen Kossamak in the 1950s, and Hun Pen was among the classical dancers.[1][5]

Alumni and teachers

  • Charya Burt of Charya Burt Cambodian Dance, who began training at the University of Fine Arts in 1982 and joined its faculty after earning a teaching certificate in 1990[11]
  • Devi Yim of Cambodian Celestial Dance, who graduated from the University of Fine Arts in 1987 or 1988[10][8]
  • Sophiline Cheam Shapiro of Sophiline Arts Ensemble, one of the earliest graduates of the reopened School of Fine Arts, who taught on its dance faculty from 1988 to 1991[12]
  • Proeung Chhieng, dean of choreographic arts and vice rector during the 2001 tour[1]

Leadership

The rector's message on the university's website is signed by Heng Sophady.[2]

See also

References 12
  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Asia Society, Dance: the Spirit of Cambodia program notes (2001)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Royal University of Fine Arts, Message from the rector (in Khmer)
  3. ↑ PBS NewsHour and KQED, the 1,000-year-old dance tradition (2015)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Royal University of Fine Arts, History of the Royal University of Fine Arts (in Khmer)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Japan Foundation Asia Center, Asia Hundreds: Kang Rithisal (2020)
  6. ↑ Royal University of Fine Arts, Department of Foundation Year (in Khmer)
  7. ↑ Patrick Kersalé, Sounds of Angkor, Folk dances (2023)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Cambodian-American Heritage, Inc., master dancers
  9. ↑ Sopheng Cheang, Associated Press, Cambodia's Day of Remembrance marks the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge genocide (May 20, 2025)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Cambodian Celestial Dance, About
  11. ↑ Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Charya Cheam Burt profile
  12. ↑ Northrop, University of Minnesota, Sophiline Cheam Shapiro (2013)

Sources

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This page was last edited on 22 October 2026, at 01:35.