Event
Season of Cambodia
Organized by Cambodian Living Arts
Season of Cambodia was a two-month festival of Cambodian arts held across New York City in April and May 2013.[1][2] The Phnom Penh nonprofit Cambodian Living Arts conceived it, and it brought 125 artists from Cambodia to perform and show work at some 30 New York arts and educational institutions.[1][3]
Background
In 2013 American Theatre summed up the view of Phloeun Prim, executive director of Cambodian Living Arts: the country's arts were in a time of revival, with a young population turning to art and culture to understand Cambodia's history and its own place in it. In his view, links with the wider world were part of that revival, and Season of Cambodia was arranged to make them in New York.[4] Asia Society describes the festival as an initiative of Cambodian Living Arts and credits Prim with a large part in making it happen.[5]
Program
The festival opened in early April with ceremonies at the Rubin Museum of Art.[2] Its program took in ritual, music, dance, shadow puppetry, visual art, film and academic forums.[3][2]
- Dance. Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and the Khmer Arts Ensemble opened the performances at the Joyce Theater on April 9 to 14 with A Bend in the River, with music by Him Sophy and life-size puppets by the sculptor Sopheap Pich.[4] Amrita Performing Arts brought Emmanuèle Phuon's work on the monkey character of classical masked dance to the Guggenheim on April 28 and 29.[4] In May the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, directed by Princess Norodom Buppha Devi, danced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[4][2]
- Shadow puppetry. The shadow puppet troupe of Wat Bo performed Sbek Thom, large leather figures moved before a lit screen to tell a story from the Reamker, at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden.[4][2]
- Music. The blind master musician Kong Nay gave a concert at Asia Society, and the Cambodian American band Dengue Fever played at Le Poisson Rouge.[2]
- Film. The documentary maker Rithy Panh curated a film series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.[2]
- Talks. Boreth Ly and Khatharya Um led a symposium at Asia Society with Cambodian artists on rebuilding the arts after the Khmer Rouge years.[3]
Visual art
The festival's visual art program was called In Residence.[2] The Metropolitan Museum of Art showed ten rattan and bamboo sculptures by Sopheap Pich, and Asia Society showed Bomb Ponds, photographs and a video by Vandy Rattana about the American bombing of Cambodia.[2][3] Svay Sareth painted Churning, a mural along a 17-meter walkway at Brookfield Place, and Lim Sokchanlina wrapped the trees of a Fort Greene park in orange fencing for Wrapped Future.[2] The painter Leang Seckon also took part.[6]
The festival closed with an open studio on Governors Island on May 25 to 27, showing two months of work by five artists in residence: Lim Sokchanlina, Amy Lee Sanford, Svay Sareth, Than Sok and Vandy Rattana.[2]
Funding and reception
The festival received a Charles E. Culpeper Arts and Culture grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund's New York City program.[1] Karen Brooks Hopkins, president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, called the number of institutions that came together for it an unprecedented achievement.[2]
References 6
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Festival Celebrates Cambodian Arts in New York City (April 2013)
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 BroadwayWorld, Season of Cambodia to Culminate with Visual Arts Open Studio Exhibition, 5/25-27 (May 22, 2013)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Asia Society, Season of Cambodia at Asia Society (2013)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 American Theatre, News in Brief for April 2013: Connecting with Cambodia (April 1, 2013)
- ↑ Asia Society, Seasons of Cambodia in NYC (2013)
- ↑ The Cambodia Daily, Artist Leang Seckon Reflects on Cambodia's Journey (June 23, 2014)