The Cambodian Living Arts “Masters” are a group of Cambodian artists who survived the Khmer Rouge, as well as the civil wars bracketing their period of rule.

Before the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia had a vibrant cultural scene encouraged by Prince Sihanouk, himself an aspiring filmmaker. The popular music of the day blended traditional Khmer rhythms and instrumentation with rock and roll imported from the West. Building from a strong local tradition and invigorated by post-colonial independence and new Western influences, Cambodia’s music and film industries started to grow into a thriving scene.

As part of the effort to produce a classless society engaged in pure agricultural communism, the KR brutally enslaved or eliminated anyone with any skills above that of a simple peasant. Teachers, doctors, merchants, anyone educated at all. Artists, because of their cultural ties to either the decadent bourgeosise present, or the oppressive monarchist past, were also selected for elimination.

Since the the end of the civil war in 1999, when the final members of the Khmer Rouge surrendered after decades of guerrilla fighting, Cambodia has been slowly getting back on track. The government is still a mess, run by Hun Sen, himself an ex-Khmer Rouge cadre, and his Cambodian People’s Party, a remnant of the Vietnamese puppet government set up in the wake of the Vietnamese invasion that overthrew the KR. The economy is poor, mostly sustenance farmers, and a few urban centers supported with tourism and NGO money.

And the art is crap! When I went there last year, crappy karaoke music ruled the airwaves, same as everywhere in SE Asia, a far cry from the amazing pop music being produced in the pre-war years. Traditional music is hard to come by as well, as nobody knows how to play it anymore. Temples simply blast recordings of traditional music. Dance has been reduced to a tourist attraction and cheesy routines for the aforementioned karaoke videos. Khmer cinema seemed mostly comprised of imports from other Asian countries with Khmer dubbing or subtitles (let’s hear it for literacy, at least!)

This program, the Cambodian Living Arts, strives to provide funding for “Masters” that have survived to pass on their skills and preserve Cambodian living culture. Their mission, as quoted on this Kickstarter page is “to support the revival of traditional Khmer performing arts and to inspire contemporary artistic expression” and the goal that “by the year 2020, Cambodia will experience a cultural renaissance so dynamic that the arts will become the country’s international signature.”

This Kickstarter page is going to fund a project by the Vanderbilt Republic Foundation, which plans on going to Cambodia to document the CLA to built international awareness of the project. From their site, their “idea is to create a powerful photography archive of each Masters, their artforms, and the next generation of students.” Watch the video to see some of the artists they will be supporting.

I’ve been fairly geeked over the possibilities ofKickstarter, having now supported two small-scale art projects and being very happy about the results, one resulting in some pretty cool, one of a kind art for me to hang on my wall. This is the biggest project I’ve backed on Kickstarter, with a goal of $50,000. I’ve backed it, now I’m trying to get other folks to join in. Hey, I’ll support your project, if you start one on there. It’s a great service.