Bun Rith Suon
Suon, Bun Rith is a Cambodian national currently doing cultural consultancy work. He is the former Director of Phare Ponleu Selpak, a local non-profit organization with a remit to use the arts for human development. Prior to this post, he worked as Country Director for Amrita Performing Arts, a US nonprofit NGO and a pioneer in promoting contemporary creativity in Cambodian music, dance and theatre. He was also Head of Production of Cambodian Living Arts, overseeing the performance series at the National Museum, Phnom Penh, aimed at promoting and developing the creative industry in order to generate income for professional performers in Cambodia.
He was the first Cambodian to win an award from the Asian Scholarship Foundation, which enabled him to conduct a nine-month research project on arts management in Indonesia in 2003. In appreciation of his significant contributions to the revitalization and promotion of the performing arts in Cambodia, he was awarded, by the Asian Cultural Council-Kenneth Fung & Nelly, in 2005, a six-month fellowship programme on arts and theatre management in the United States. He is also a graduate of the 2010 cohort of the Kennedy Center Arts Management Institution’s Summer International Fellowship Program, Washington DC, USA. In 2014, His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, the King of Cambodia, awarded him the Gold Medal of the Royal Order, at the Royal Palace, in recognition of his great contribution to the restoration, preservation and development of the Cambodian performing arts.
Bun Rith earned his BA in Khmer Literature from the Royal University of Phnom Penh in 1995, and was recruited as a secondary-school teacher a year later after obtaining a teaching qualification (BA+1). He then worked from 1998 for UNESCO’s Phnom Penh Office as an Intangible Cultural Heritage Specialist and assisted the Royal University of Fine Arts and other arts organizations with numerous projects. He has specialized in arts administration, production management and capacity building and has participated in and presented papers to numerous professional conferences and festivals in both Cambodia and abroad.
Suon, Bun Rith is recently appointed as Advisor to the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts to take charge of the initiative on establish a regular performing program at the Chaktomuk theatre and the project of National Inventory Database on Intangible Cultural Heritage of Cambodia as well as strategic development for Directorate General of Technical Cultural Affairs.