What is Art for Peace, Cambodia?

Art for Peace, Cambodia is an innovative program committed to promoting dialogue through the arts on contemporary issues concerning peace in Cambodia.  The program was born out of the direct experiences of its founders, Daravuth SENG and Sasha CONSTABLE, and their realization that through the arts – both visual and performing – sensitive and often unspeakable issues are best addressed.  The visual and performing arts have increasingly become standard tools to which clinical therapists are turning to help make sense of unspeakable events.

The plastic and performing arts allow access to non-cognitive ways through which meaning is made.  It is widely acknowledged by professionals in the field that the essence of the traumatic experience is held within "meaning made" by the person experiencing this tear in the fabric of their body, mind, and soul. Thus, our first task is to make meaning and to listen to our informants as they make meaning of their somatic and psychic experiences of illness as well as their experiences of life in their changing community.

Art for Peace, Cambodia seeks to provide a forum where issues may be explored in their full complexity, challenging the audience on emotional, intellectual and visceral levels.