The Evolution of Arts in Cambodia

Join us as we explore the evolving landscape of Cambodian arts. The program will feature performance, poetry, and a panel discussion on the transformative power of the arts and its catalytic role in supporting a vital society in Cambodia. Phloeun Prim, Executive Director of Cambodian Living Arts and New York City-based Cambodian poet Sokunthary Svay will join Elena Park, Joe Melillo, and Karen Brooks Hopkins to reflect on how the cultural landscape has transformed not only Cambodia but in the Mekong region in the years following the Khmer Rouge regime of 1975-79.

Panelists

Phloeun Prim is the Executive Director of Living Arts International (LAI). He started his career as a co-founder of a vocational training program called “Artisans d’Angkor”, teaching young artisans in rural areas to develop skills in traditional handicrafts, and creating a marketplace for their work. In 2009, he became Director of Cambodian Living Arts. In the last decade he has led the transformation of Cambodian Living Arts (CLA) into Living Arts International, initiating policy-driven, collaborative and transnational cultural actions, inspired by the resilience of arts communities in post-conflict contexts. LAI initiated in 2017 Mekong Cultural hub which focuses on building connection and exchange among artists and cultural workers throughout Asia.

Sokunthary Svay was born in a refugee camp in Thailand shortly after her parents fled Cambodia after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. They were sponsored to come to the United States and resettled in the Bronx where she grew up. A founding member of the Cambodian American Literary Arts Association (CALAA), she has received fellowships from the American Opera Project, Poets House, Willow Books, and CUNY, as well as commissions from Washington National Opera, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, the Chautauqua Institution, and ISSUE Project Room. In addition to publishing a poetry collection, Apsara in New York (Willow Books, 2017), Svay has had her writing anthologized and performed by actors and singers. Svay’s first opera, Woman of Letters, set by composer Liliya Ugay, received its world premiere at the Kennedy Center in January 2020 as part of the American Opera Initiative. A recent recipient of the OPERA America IDEA grant, her second opera with Ugay, Chhlong Tonle, received its premiere in March 2022. She is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the CUNY Graduate Center and a Lecturer at CCNY.

Karen Books Hopkins was an employee of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (“BAM”), America’s oldest performing arts center, for 36 years serving as its President from 1999 until her retirement in 2015. Karen is a Board member and Senior Advisor to the Onassis Foundation.  She is also a Director of the Trust for Governors Island and a Board member of the Jerome L. Greene Foundation. From 2005– 2010, she represented Brooklyn on the State Board of Regents. From 2015-2017, Karen served as Senior Fellow at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Karen has been awarded honorary degrees from St. Francis College, Long Island University, Pratt Institute and Columbia University.  She has received international honors including the King Olav Medal from Norway, the Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France and the Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star from Sweden.  During her tenure at BAM, the institution was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2013, Karen was named one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in New York by Crain’s New York and was honored as a member of the first Crain’s Hall of Fame in 2015. Karen is the author of Successful Fundraising for Arts and Culture Organizations, currently in its 2nd edition.  In 2021, her memoir, BAM…And Then It Hit Me, was published by powerHouse Books.

Joseph V. Melillo was BAM’s executive producer from 1999 to 2018. Mr. Melillo was responsible for BAM's artistic direction, overseeing programming in all its performance spaces: the Howard Gilman Opera House, Harvey Theater, BAM Fisher and Rose Cinemas. He previously served as BAM's producing director and founding director of the Next Wave Festival, which debuted in 1983. Spanning a 35 year-tenure at BAM, Melillo has fostered the work of emerging and established artists, and forged numerous international partnerships. Awards include the Commandeur, Officier, and Chevalier de L'ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), OBE (Great Britain), Knight of the Royal Order of the Polar Star (Sweden), and Knight of the National Order of Québec (Canada). He has served as both a 2017 Gish Award panelist and a 2017 Heinz Award juror. Melillo is the 2019 Director’s Fellow at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. He is a lecturer at colleges and universities nationally and internationally.

Elena Park throughout her colorful career, director-producer-curator has moved freely through the worlds of arts, culture, and media. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she and her company Lumahai Productions embrace opportunities for artistic collaboration and social change with artists, thinkers, and communities as well as institutions, large and small. Elena’s award-winning In Song films, created with San Francisco Opera, have showcased opera singers such as Pretty Yende and Jamie Barton with Béla Fleck, while her forthcoming Visual Cavafy series taps artists such as Jad Abumrad, Taylor Mac, Julianne Moore, and Carl Hancock Rux. Her NationalSawdust+ series has presented Marina Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, Ava DuVernay, Gandini Juggling, Yo-Yo Ma, Nico Muhly, Patti Smith, and Esperanza Spalding, among others. Select credits: Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” and radio shows, Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus series, San Francisco Opera’s Instigators, and Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle. She served as Strategic Advisor for the Season of Cambodia in Spring 2013.