Including artists with disabilities is incredibly important to us. As performers ourselves, this marks our first collaborative experience in creating art together. We take pride in showcasing our unique strengths, focusing on our abilities rather than our challenges,...
This year more than ever, we’ve felt the heartbeat of Phare Ponleu Selpak—stronger, warmer, and more connected than before. 2024 was a year that reminded us of the power of art, the importance of coming together, and the incredible stories we create when we support...
Photo credit: Olivia AUDO Over the past year, Phare’s mobile library has brought joy and literary opportunities to children in Battambang. The brightly decorated rickshaw, brimming with books, and the welcoming smiles of volunteers have all become a staple image of...
Earlier this month, on 4 August 2023, was the commemoration of two years since the passing of Lokru Srey Bandaul, one of the beloved teachers and co-founders of Phare Ponleu Selpak. We remember the great meaning, purpose, and vision he gave to the Phare Ponleu Selpak...
The S’Art Urban Arts Festival is back! Join us on the streets of Battambang from 12 to 17 June 2023 for this biennial festival that introduces the public to urban art forms like hip-hop music and dance, as well as graffiti and mural painting. After cancelling the 2021...
2022 has come to a close, and it is with both pride and gratitude that we look back on all the things we have achieved in this first full post-lockdown year. The highlights are too many to count, but here – in words and in pictures – is our attempt. Guinness World...
Through a series of workshops in the fall, we’ve focused intensely on training Battambang’s public school kindergarten teachers on integrating arts in the education of young children. The first workshop took place back in September, where we hosted kindergarten...
December 18th marked a day we had been looking forward to for a very long time. After months of hard work, we were able to present our virtual fundraising gala “Fight for Light,” a one-of-a-kind musical circus adventure and multimedia love story about...
Cambodian non-profit Phare Ponleu Selpak completed an incredible journey that started on 7 March 2021, when it performed a 24-hour circus in a last-ditch effort to raise funds to survive the pandemic and set a Guinness World Record. Phare was finally able to announce...
Celebrating 3 Years of the Love Does Not Hurt Campaign On Friday 14 October, we held a Mini Arts Festival on our campus called “Today’s Tomorrow,” wrapping up all the lessons learned during the past three years of implementing the LDNH project. Love Does...
As societies evolve, the difficulties that young people face – and the social support they need – change accordingly. For example, today’s youth in Cambodia have to deal with a number of challenges, including: Scholastic and peer pressure Family breakdowns or...
Current situation Malnutrition still impacts many children in Cambodia. Rice, some meat and vegetables is in their diet but seldom fruit and dairy products, because they are not affordable by vulnerable households. Moreover, Cambodians consume excessive amount of...
Out of the Tini Tinou International Circus Festival spotlight, which took everyone’s attention during the months of May and June, our education team was busy launching the community mobile library. Books have always played a significant role at Phare, engaging many...
On 23 March 2022 Phare Ponleu Selpak hosted a roundtable discussion on child protection and the promotion of positive discipline for children under the topic, “How to Apply Positive Discipline at School”, with seven guest speakers, including Mr. Chhun Ramy, Deputy...
How we are incorporating the arts into everything we do. And why it matters! Here at Phare Ponleu Selpak, we believe strongly in the power of the arts to change lives. And science is on our side! Many studies in Asia and around the world show that the arts have...
It’s been more than a year our visual arts students have been on and off school following the government’s protocol as the pandemic spread over Cambodia. We had shown you back then how the first home confinement had provided Phare Ponleu Selpak students...
« I am a Cambodian national living in the U.S. since 1979, when I moved to Washington DC and joined the World Bank to work on development globally and more specifically to contribute to the socio-economic development of my homeland. Since I retired in 2013, I have...
After the most difficult year in our history, including the closure of our circuses with disastrous impact on funding, we have triumphed against the odds to win four gold awards at the Stevie International Business Awards (IBAs)! Phare Ponleu Selpak has just been...
This June 2021, the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport announced that all schools will remain closed and children will continue learning through online classes due to the pandemic. For rural and less privileged communities in Battambang, it still means a...
Phare Ponleu Selpak is still taking an active role in the “Love Does Not Hurt Campaign”: a three-year advocacy campaign launched in 2020 to push for an end to Humiliating/Corporal Punishment and to promote Positive Discipline in the Southeast Asian Region....
This pandemic has brought the inequality and inequity in education to the forefront. The students we serve suffered greatly with the school closures as most of them cannot afford computers and access to internet at home to continue with online classes like their...
History was made at 08.10 am on Monday 8 March in Battambang, Cambodia when no less than 90 circus performers from Phare Ponleu Selpak took a final bow after a continuous circus performance that lasted 24h, 10min, and 30sec in a stunningly ambitious Guinness World...
Do you want to be a Guinness World Record Breaker? And help Phare survive the pandemic? Then please join us on March 6 & 7 for our thrilling virtual gala and record-breaking Longest Circus Peformance Ever! We want you to join us for ONE EXCITING HOUR, where...
Those who have visited our campus after fall 2019 must remember the iconic « Anapyabal » mural on our circus building, painted by the world-famous Irish urban artist FinDac. After his visit to Battambang and Phare Ponleu Selpak, he made limited edition prints of...
Along with our main programs targeting the youth, we continue to develop greater community outreach projects with « Voice of older people – Amplifying Voice Through the Arts », which aims to use the arts as an innovative tool to raise awareness in the community...
Cirque du Cambodia is a documentary film showcasing the success story of Dina and Sopha, from their teenage years in Phare Performing Arts School until they became the first Cambodians to perform with the worldwide famous Cirque du Soleil. Starting on November 20,...
These are strange times we are living in. Behind the scenes of Phare Ponleu Selpak are slices of life stories, with their ups and downs, but mostly carrying with them the hope of brighter days to come. Listen to Phare voices, round #2! “I knew about Phare since...
After all Cambodian schools closed in March, the Education Department at Phare Ponleu Selpak responded by developing outreach programs in the surrounding communes to provide our kindergarten children with face to face, socially distanced classes. We started off with a...
Phare Ponleu Selpak has had the pleasure to co-organize a day of circus workshops to entertain and bring joy to the children of the « Metta Karuna » Center, a like-minded organization of Battambang Province which provides education and care to young people coming from...
Phare Ponleu Selpak is well known for its circus and arts schools, but did you know it is hosting a professional graphic design and animation studio under the very same roof, whose latest COVID-19 animation movie amassed more than a million views? Phare Creative...
Working in times of COVID-19 can be unsettling. Behind the scenes of Phare Ponleu Selpak, our staff and students tell us about their concerns and their strengths. ” What is happening is worse than anything I had expected. All art workshops, shows, outside...
In these troubled times, our first thought has been for the many impoverished communities in Battambang Province who are counting on Phare’s support. Social support has always been at the core of our mission. To understand the economic situation and immediate needs of...
COVID-19 brought the world to a temporary halt with many communities around the globe in lockdown, and millions of children being confined at home. This new situation presented novel challenges for their parents and guardians not yet familiar with home schooling....
Like many content creators around the world, who are responding to the COVID-19 crisis online with engaging public health videos, Minor Act has teamed up with us to create a very unique Cambodian creative response: “Wash Ya Handz!!!”. The music video, bursting with...
These past weeks, our big Phare family has been counting on everyone’s solidarity, firmly believing that we will come out of this COVID-19 pandemic stronger. Home confinement has provided Phare artists with time to reflect on this huge wave affecting us all and adapt...
Dear supporters and followers, I never imagined to be in the midst of a global pandemic during my lifetime. It is as if we have been thrown into an horror movie activating our survival instincts. Everyone in the world is being impacted in some way or another. With...
We did it: On January 18, 2020, about fifty people laced up their running shoes and set off on the 16 km Angkor Ultra Trail Run! The race was located in the cultural jewel of Cambodia: the temples of Angkor. The trail weaved its way around several ancient temples,...
Last month, our Big Top hosted an array of short showcases thoroughly prepared by our younger performing arts students and their leisure class teachers. A unique opportunity for them to gain valuable stage experience and showcase their talent. Among the acts was the...
Meet our budding artists, who are studying both at the Phare Public School and our Performing Arts School! Thanks to our sponsorship program, they can enjoy free education and lots of creative activities on our campus. Statements from Sovann, 13 years old, circus...
Koemyean comes from Kor Koh village in Battambang Province. He is 27, he’s a fashion designer, and he teaches graphic design in our Visual and Applied Arts School (VAAS). Not so long ago, he was a student in that very same school: « I enrolled in VAAS in 2013....
This year marks an important year for Phare Ponleu Selpak as we are celebrating our 25th anniversary! On this special occasion we organized two fundraising galas, one gala in Cambodia and one in France. Our heartfelt thanks go out to all our supporters in Cambodia...
Sokia, our physiotherapist at Phare, joined Phare Ponleu Selpak in 2004 and has been with us since the early days of our child support initiatives. Here’s what he has to say about the evolution of child support at Phare. “When I started at Phare, there were...
Phare Ponleu Selpak is dedicated to upholding the rights of all children. To this end, Child Club was created in February 2015, by 30 students from 16 different villages in the communes of Ochar, Chamcar Samrong and Toul Taek. It comes from the idea that children...
November marks the end of the European Union Aid Volunteers (EUAV) deployment after they have joined Phare team this past year. The volunteers arrived in November, January or June for a duration of six months, nine months, or one year. The 10 volunteers have offered...
A brand new circus show called FENCE has been launched on our Battambang campus! This new performance is the fruit of a collaboration between our Performing Arts School and the Austrian Theater Der Sprachfehler. Its authors Andreas Jaehnert and Christian Kuehne spent...
How did it all start? The Performing Arts School introduced dance to the curriculum at the end of 2013. The lessons began with traditional Cambodian dance and built from there. Advanced classes introduced students to modern influences. The dance program aims at...
Monisovanya Ry studied as an artist in our Visual and Applied Arts School, where she attended the graphic design vocational training. With no previous arts literacy, her first motives to integrate into our program were very pragmatic: it was free and close from home....
Before joining Phare Ponleu Selpak, Xavier Gobin had a successful career as a dancer, collaborating with great creators such as Maurice Béjart and Jiri Kylian. However, very quickly, Gobin felt the desire to give others the same chances he had, of experiencing the...
Keeping children safe is everyone’s responsibility. To ensure that we stay on top of child protection, all Phare Ponleu Selpak staff received a one-day training in August to get a better understanding of our child protection policy. They became more familiar with its...
The quiet streets of Battambang came to life with concerts, workshops, exhibitions, mural paintings and the Giant Puppet Parade between May 28 and June 1 for the first edition of the S’Art Urban Art Festival. The S’Art Urban Art Festival was a big step towards...
Every year at Phare Ponleu Selpak, July marks the opportunity to reward the hard work of our graduates, who have been studying for up to 4 years in the Visual and Applied Arts School. We are celebrating the graduates starting a new chapter of their lives and launching...
Would you like to know what our Social Support department does on a monthly basis? Let us show you their activities of the last quarter in a few numbers. Child Protection Program: We have raised awareness through workshops on children’s rights, child protection, and...
In 2014, a section of the old music school fell apart, and for safety reasons the whole building had to be destroyed. Since they don’t have any dedicated space to learn and create, our young musicians find themselves forced to train and perform anywhere they can find...
For nearly 25 years, Phare Ponleu Selpak has been using the arts to transform the lives of children in Battambang, Cambodia. Originally, we helped refugee children cope with trauma through drawing and arts education. Over the years, we added more arts, including...
The lights dim and the room falls silent. A soft light issues from behind a white screen as the drums begin to play. Suddenly, shapes appear dancing across the screen. A narrator’s voice emerges telling a tale of a monkey, Hanuman, trying to rescue his wife, Sita. If...
What do you imagine when you think about the sorts of classes circus artists take part in here at Phare Ponleu Selpak? Flips and trapezes? Sequins and tightropes? Not always. Recently, Phare performing arts students took part in financial literacy workshops thanks to...
![What Worries Us & What Keeps Us Strong? Phare Voices [Part 2]](https://phareps.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Capture-decran-2020-10-02-a-16.19.38.png)
