The Mekong Mapping Project - report published

The Mekong Mapping Project has been published by the Mekong Cultural Hub - a practitioners study exploring arts ecosystems, professional development needs and regional collaboration in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Among the very interesting findings:

• The majority of survey respondents is male, above the age of 35, has a degree - many from abroad - and speaks English well. This raises questions as to the position of artists within the respective communities in the Mekong Region. 
• While respondents in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand are comparatively well informed about cultural policy in their countries, there is not much perceived knowledge and understanding of it in Cambodia.
• People-to-people exchange and friendship networks are very important across the Mekong Region, especially in Laos and Myanmar, where digital communication is used less for professional networking and accessing information.
• Non-Mekong Southeast Asian countries are more successful in establishing networks with cultural practitioners from the Mekong Region than the region itself.
• Access to funding sources appears to be among the most difficult tasks for artists and creative practitioners in the Mekong Region. While in all countries governmental support plays some role in the funding environment, there is a clear trend of funding towards traditional arts.

You can download the report here

Mekong Cultural Hub is a non-profit organisation, with a mission to build sustainable networks between cultural workers in Asia and to provide personal and professional development opportunities for artists and managers who are working at the intersection of arts and society. Whilst serving and making connections with the wider Asia region, its priority focus is on the Mekong Region (including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam). And its target is to support creative practitioners who are already established in their own contexts – and are ready to widen their networks and their impact by developing regional projects and collaboration. MCH aims to build links within the region, and to give it more visibility, both within Asia and internationally. Whilst the countries in the Mekong Region have a shared history, shared political and economic contexts and opportunities, there is very little knowledge exchange or resource sharing between leaders in the arts sector. Mekong Cultural Hub fills a critical and timely gap in resource for leadership, mobility and access to information for artists and creative practitioners and in doing so, aims to increase the contribution of the culture and arts sector to the Mekong Region’s future development.