Help Young Cambodian Artists Start Their Career

After an exciting final quarter of our 2015 Arn Chorn-Pond Scholarship Program Cambodian Living Arts is heading towards a new program year. Let’s take a look back on the past program year and – of course – a look forward to a new program year with new students and new activities!

Cambodian Arts Launch Pad Campaign

In August, we ran our Cambodian Arts Launch Pad, an online campaign on Facebook and here on Global Giving to raise funds for our scholarship program. The month-long campaign was supported by international musician and human rights activist Peter Gabriel, a friend of Arn. Peter promoted the Cambodian Arts Launch Pad through videos featuring interviews with Arn talking about his work with Cambodian Living Arts.

Throughout the month, our campaign activities highlighted our scholarship students, their talents, their motivation and achievements and received a great response from you, our Global Giving supporters.

Besides the photos and messages posted on Facebook, this video of our dancing student Borey performing the Monkey Dance to his scholarship peers also impressed donors and followers.

A passionate supporter and major donor to our scholarship program provided the Cambodian Arts Launch Pad with an inspiring testimonial explaining what motivates her to keep on giving to the program.

‘[…] The need in Cambodia is great and the young people of the country are so deserving.  Those who wish to pursue the arts need the financial assistance.  A gift of $1,200, which provides for a year-long scholarship, can not only change the life of the individual, but an entire family.  Unfortunately, in the U.S. and many other places, this amount would barely make a dent.  I do give to local and national organizations, but truly feel the impact of the contributions to Cambodian Living Arts.

A new generation of artists is taking shape and Cambodia is reclaiming its heritage.’

Through the Cambodian Living Arts Launch Pad campaign and thanks to everyone’s support we raised $2,632 for our scholarship program.

Old and new scholarship students

In July and August, four new talented students were selected to become part of the scholarship program, while 21 existing students have had their scholarships renewed so they can continue their studies for another year.

The new scholarship year was launched in September with a performance presented by all 25 scholarship students. It was a joyful event showing solidarity and great teamwork between the new and the existing scholarship students as they staged their first joint production.

A successful scholarship year

In September, at the end of our 2015 program year we were pleased to reflect and debrief on the many improvements we made in the program. Monthly meetings of the scholarship students were given a more engaging format with skills-sharing-performances, creative joint projects, soft-skill trainings and a good combination of exchange, learning, and fun activities. We are happy to say that the funded students even started becoming active beyond the scholarship program, many of them participating in projects such as fundraising, arts teaching and environment protection, initiated not only by Cambodian Living Arts but also other organizations in Cambodia.

We also improved the scholarship program by engaging one more important party: The students’ families. In September, we invited all scholarship students and their parents to a presentation on the program and the ideas behind it, giving parents an in depth understanding of the program and greater appreciation for their children’s arts education.

New program year, new aspirations and challenges

In the first quarter of the new program year, starting this month, the students will be given a range of trainings on soft and working skills. With supervision and funding from us they will also be organizing and facilitating an exchange event with professionals from the arts sector as well as social entrepreneurs.                                                 

For the new program year, we are planning to initiate an Alumni Network to involve former scholarship students in the current program, to allow them to share experiences, and to connect current scholarship students deeper with the arts society in Cambodia and in the wider world. Following requests from the students, we are also planning to establish new partnerships with English language and arts institutions by the end of the next program year.

The scholarship students are continuously developing their skills. No matter how talented they are, they all keep striving to improve, to learn more, and to contribute to a society that enjoys and appreciates the arts.

We thank you, our Global Giving donors, for your generous support which has enabled a generation of young artists to start realizing their dreams and to help Cambodia regain its arts and culture. There are many plans, tasks and professional challenges still awaiting the scholarship students in current and future program years. The donations made through you, our Global Giving family, will spur on their personal development and will bring Cambodian Living Arts closer to realizing our vision of societal transformation through the arts.