Open Studio Cambodia is a street art installation in National Road 6 in Siem Reap. This place has 7 reviews and an average rating of 5.0 of 5. This is a superb rating!
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Reviews from visitors:
If you are looking for inspiration, you will find it at Open Studio under Lauren’s direction. Lauren is a gifted artist whose life journey has been about finding and helping others in need. At Open Studio, she sponsors and supports the growth and development of artists who aspire to make a comfortable living creating beautiful and important works of art indicative of life in Cambodia.
She is also very active in the artist community, bringing together other independent artists to share best practices and to support each other’s endeavors.
Lastly, Lauren is also a fabulous tour guide. Her services include group or individualized custom tours that you should not miss. She is beautifully connected wherever you go, knows the country extremely well, and speaks Khmer. A beautiful blend of everything you could need or want for a most memorable trip around the beautiful Kingdom of Cambodia.
We joined for a Siem Reap Art Tour, and every stop on the tour was compelling. Meeting the artists and hearing firsthand about their experiences and work made the tour feel like hanging out with friends. Thank you to the whole OpenStudio crew! See you soon :)
Amazing artists and a fantastic and unique experience on the Open Studio art tour! Lauren Iida is very knowledgeable and passionate about Cambodian art! I highly recommend.
Open Studio is a very welcome addition to the Siem Reap arts scene. Having only recently moved up here from Kampot, their reputation preceded them. Founder Lauren Iida, an artist herself, supports and nurtures aspiring Cambodian artists. Lauren also conducts very unique art tour experiences, taking visitors to engage with a variety of local Cambodian artists.
They have an inspirational mission - support for up-and-coming contemporary Cambodian artists.
We took the Atlas Obscura "Cambodia: Contemporary Art, Spiritual Traditions, and Hidden Wonders" tour with Siem Reap extension January 10-24, 2020. Lauren Iida from Open Studio Cambodia was our tour manager.
This was a life-changing experience. It was a headlong, no holds barred plunge into Cambodian history, culture and art. Lauren provided us with personal access to many Cambodian artists, both established and rising. The accounts of their lives and artistic journeys gave us insights into the effects of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1978) on families and artistic life in this country. We learned about the challenges of reconnecting young artists with the [vanishing, endangered] artistic traditions of prior generations that the Khmer Rouge tried to eliminate (by killing artists!). Contempory Cambodian artists are challenged further by a lack of encouragement for un-approved, non-traditional art from the current government, universities and other institutions.
One artist we met had to work as a boxer and a tuk-tuk driver before he could support himself as an artist. Another was sold into slavery by his family, finally escaping to find his own path to artistic success, but also channeling his painful experiences into unforgettable art. We met a French-born son of Cambodian refugees, renowned for street art in Toronto, who came to Cambodia to discover his roots and ended up creating remarkable public works throughout Phnom Penh and on the walls of a former military base in Kampot. A construction worker who lost both arms in an electrical accident, rejected by his own community, discovered a talent for printmaking. We met sculptors, painters, a musical instrument maker and a graphic novel artist.
And we met the parents of some of the artists in their homes. A father (and now proud grandfather) described how he survived, as a soldier, the Cambodian civil war, the Khmer Rouge, and conflict on the Vietnam border, over a twenty year period. He survived wounds from gunshots and a landmine.
We visited Open Studio Cambodia in Siem Reap, where Lauren has assembled a community of contemporary artists supporting each other in their artistic efforts.
Lauren, a US native, is a long-time resident of Cambodia, and speaks fluent Khmer. Between her and her intrepid, omni-present, multi-lingual assistants and guides, a brigade of tuk-tuk and van drivers, and her administrative assistants in Kampot and Siem Reap, any question could be answered, and any problem solved.
Highly recommended.
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