The Carrying Culture Project supports the work of the Khmer Magic Music Bus and Cambodian Living Arts. These resources help educators and students encounter Cambodian culture as living, contemporary, and deeply relevant. All materials are open access and freely available.
Cambodia's history from the Angkor Empire through genocide to contemporary cultural revival. Comprehensive context for understanding CLA's preservation work, with narrative overview and teaching resources.
A powerful case study centered on Arn's TEDx talk, exploring how one child's decision to learn music became a lifelong mission of cultural preservation and healing through Cambodian Living Arts.
Ride along on a real trip from Siem Reap toward Battambang. An interactive journey with choices at every stop, exploring traditional Khmer music, the communities hearing it again, and who carries a culture forward.
The Carrying Culture Project grew out of long-term relationships, shared experiences, and sustained engagement with Cambodian artists and cultural educators.
It supports the work of Cambodian Living Arts and the Khmer Magic Music Bus. Their daily practice demonstrates something essential: culture isn't something fixed in the past. It's something actively carried forward through teaching, performance, and community connection.
Schools often frame Cambodia primarily through conflict and loss. We start somewhere else: with the artists, musicians, and cultural workers who have been rebuilding, teaching, and creating for decades. Their work offers models of resilience, care, continuity, and artistic excellence that learners can draw from.
Rather than presenting a single narrative, these resources invite engagement through music, history, and lived experience, emphasizing listening, context, and connection. They're designed to work in pieces or as a whole, across disciplines and grade levels. Teachers can use them as standalone lessons, multi-day explorations, or as part of a broader unit.
We developed these resources to honor the artistry, history, and ongoing cultural work they highlight—and in the belief that learning is itself a way culture is carried forward.