Connecticut College China Yunnan/Mekong Project

Participating Organizations

Organizing Institutions | Participating Institutions |Funding Organizations|U.S. Tour Participating Organizations

Organizing Institutions

Connecticut College (New London, Connecticut) is a private liberal arts college known for academic excellence, interdisciplinary studies, innovation in education, and international programs, funded internships, and a wide range of student-faculty research opportunities.

More than half of the student body studies abroad, including programs in China and Vietnam. The College has a reputation in the arts and a long-standing commitment to East Asian languages and cultures. The College is committed to the internationalization of education, and has been recognized by the American Council on Education as a national model. The College puts the study of liberal arts into action across the globe.

The Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.), founded in 1846, is an educational and research organization including 16 national museums of the U.S., a zoo, magazine, press, and recording companies. The Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage is a research institute of the Smithsonian that promotes the understanding and continuity of diverse contemporary grassroots cultures in the United States and throughout the world. The Center is dedicated to the collaborative research, presentation, conservation, and continuity of traditional knowledge and artistry. It has been active in Vietnam since 1987, in Thailand since 1993, and with American communities from the Mekong region since 1979.

Participating Institutions

The Asia Society (New York City) is America's leading institution dedicated to fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A national nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization, the Society provides a forum for building awareness of the more than thirty countries broadly defined as the Asia-Pacific region—the area from Japan to Iran, and from Central Asia to New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands. Through art exhibitions and performances, films, lectures, seminars and conferences, publications and assistance to the media, and materials and programs for students and teachers, the Asia Society presents the uniqueness and diversity of Asia to the American people.

China/Yunnan International Culture Exchange Center (Kunming,Yunnan Province, China) was established in January 1986 with the approval of the People's Government of Yunnan Province. It is a non-governmental and non-profit organization for operating international exchanges and fostering cooperation to meet the needs of the Province in its opening to the outside world. As a bridge that links regions within Yunnan to other countries and a window through which the outside world views the province, CYICEC has engaged in a broad range of international exchanges, from arts, humanities and science to education and religion, from exhibitions, publishing, performances and conferences, to investment and research.

Department of National Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture and Information (Hanoi, Vietnam) is the body charged with state oversight of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, under the Ministry of Culture and Information (MoCI.) It assists in implementing state management of the field of cultural heritage. It is responsible for the direction and guidance to carry out the mission of safeguarding and promoting tangible and intangible cultural heritage in the whole country. It assists the Minister in issuing legal documents (Laws, Decrees, Regulations and others). Its task is to establish a master-plan, as well as annual and long-term plans for safeguarding and promoting cultural heritage. The Department of 22 staff includes a Division of Historical and Cultural Monuments and Natural Sites, Division of Museums, Division of Intangible Cultural Heritage (created in 2002 when the Law on Cultural Heritage was established), and Division of Administration, with a Director and two Deputy Directors.

Institute for Cultural Research, Ministry of Information and Culture (Vientiane, Laos) plays an important role at the national level in the research and preservation of culture including performing arts, and contributes to ministerial cultural policy especially in fundamental research on Lao culture. The Institute for Cultural Research has been under the Ministry of Information and Culture since 1993. The main objectives of the Institute are to survey, research, and inventory cultural properties, including performing arts, and to compile reference materials, the results of which are made public to contribute to the preservation of cultural properties. Under the Director, the Institute for Cultural Research has eight divisions: Administration, Literature, Linguistics, Tradition and Beliefs, Music and Performing Arts, Fine Arts and Handicrafts, History, and Documentation.

New England Foundation for the Arts (Boston, Massachusetts) has been a significant cultural force since 1975. NEFA has evolved from a regional model to develop and manage arts initiatives on local, regional, national and international levels. The foundation creatively supports the movement of people, ideas, and resources in the arts within New England and beyond, makes vital connections between artists and audiences, and builds the strength, knowledge, and leadership of the region's creative sector. NEFA promotes the creation and distribution of the full range of artistic expression. NEFA functions as a grant maker, program initiator, regional laboratory, project coordinator, developer of resources, and builder of creative partnerships among artists, arts organizations, and funders. Each program and project that is brought to life at NEFA is created with the underlying goal of building a stronger and more dynamic infrastructure for the arts.

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (Bangkok, Thailand) is an independent public agency under the guidance of the Minister of Culture. SAC is committed to fostering academic progress by propagating knowledge of new findings, encouraging and supporting development in research studies, and accumulating an extensive collection of anthropology materials, with a focus on cultural diversity in Thailand and the Southeast Asia region. It conducts and coordinates research projects at both local and international levels for the development of knowledge and information, promotion of understanding of cross cultural research findings, and good social relations.

Royal University of the Arts (Phnom Penh, Cambodia) was established in 1965 by Prince Norodom Sihanouk and closed by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. In 1980, professional artists reunited from around the country and the School of Fine Arts reopened. In 1988, the School became the University of Fine Arts, and in 1993, the Royal University of Fine Arts. Today, administered by the Ministry of Culture, under the direction of HRH Princess Buppha Devi, it is one of the repositories of Khmer culture with two campuses: the North for performing arts and the South for plastic arts, architecture, and archeology. Its faculty of Choreographic Arts is the umbrella for dance, theater, and circus arts. Training of national specialists in the relevant fields is a key factor in ensuring sustainability for the preservation of cultural heritage and was reflected in RUFA's acclaimed 2001 tour of the United States: "Dance: Spirit of Cambodia."

Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences (Kunming, Yunnan Province, China) is a research institution affiliated with the People’s Government of Yunnan Province in the People’s Republic of China. Its major fields of research include Ethnology, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, Southeast Asian Studies, Religious Studies, and Rural Economics. YASS is the leading social science research institution in Yunnan Province, with a strong reputation at home and abroad. As of the end of 2003, it has 11 research institutes, 9 sub-divisions and 7 centers. The total number of staff is 267, including 50 senior research fellows, 59 associate research fellows, and 68 assistant research fellows. The library houses 700,000 volumes. YASS also supervises 11 institutes in the prefectures of Yunnan including the Tibetology Institute of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the Dongba Cultural Studies of Lijiang, the Ethnology Institute of Honghe, and the Academy of Social Sciences of Xishuangbanna.

Funding Organizations

The Asian Cultural Council is a foundation supporting cultural exchange in the visual and performing arts between the United States and the countries of Asia, primarily through a program of fellowship grants to individuals. The ACC's grant program was established by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in 1963 and over the past 40 years has provided assistance to over 4,000 Asians and Americans in the arts.

The Rockefeller Foundation is a knowledge-based global foundation with a commitment to enrich and sustain the lives and livelihoods of poor and excluded people throughout the world. The Foundation is organized around four thematic lines of work: Creativity & Culture, Food Security, Health Equity, and Working Communities. A cross-theme of Global Inclusion supports, promotes, and supplements the work of these themes. The Rockefeller Foundation has been a supporter of the humanities since the 1920s, and of the arts since the 1930s. Through its Creativity & Culture program, the Foundation promotes diverse creative expression in the arts and humanities and seeks to preserve and invigorate the cultural heritage of people in developing countries.

U.S. Tour Participating Organization

China Yunnan International Culture Exchange Center (Kunming, Yunnan Province, China)
The Center was established in January 1986 with the approval of the People's Government of Yunnan Province. It is a non-governmental and non-profit organization for operating international exchanges and fostering cooperation to meet the needs of the Province in its opening to the outside world. As a bridge that links regions within Yunnan to other countries and a window through which the outside world views the province, CYICEC has engaged in a broad range of international exchanges, from arts, humanities and science to education and religion, from exhibitions, publishing, performances and conferences, to investment and research. The Center has been collaborating with Professor Lan- Lan Wang and the China Yunnan/Mekong Project at Connecticut College since 2000.

Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, a landmark 1450-seat, art deco theatre housed in downtown Burlington, VT, population 45,000, the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts is a vital community-based cultural center that builds model programs, spawns important national artist projects and provides invaluable leadership in the field of performing arts presentation and education. Annually, the Flynn produces a 40+-event Mainstage season of music, dance, theater, and multidisciplinary work; experimental genres in a 150-seat black-box “FlynnSpace;” a 30+performance Student Matinee Series attended by over 45,000 students annually; the nationally recognized, 10-day Burlington Discover Jazz Festival; Summer Artists' Development Residencies providing creation time and space for local and national artists; FlynnArts, a year round program in performing arts classes for children, teens and adults; and year-round humanities-centered and community-interactive programs. Over 150,000 people attend Flynn events annually. In 2000, the Flynn was a recipient of a prestigious Ford Foundation millennium initiative grant of $1.25 million toward artistic programming and endowment. The Flynn was also one of 16 presenters chosen to participate in JazzNet, a national program of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The Flynn's project "Activating Access" with AXIS Dance Company received the first Innovation in Access award, 2005, at Arts Presenters given by the MET/Life Foundation. Through a wide diversity of programs, the Flynn links artists, non-profit organizations, social service agencies, area businesses and the general public in supporting and experiencing the performing arts.

The Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, a renowned multi-disciplinary academic, visual and performing arts center since 1962, presents over 300 events each year in Hanover, New Hampshire, and is one of the original prototypes of campus-based performing arts centers in North America. The Hopkins Center's award-winning Visiting Performing Artists Series presents a spectrum of creative expression, reflecting the world's cultures to more than 66,000 attendees annually. Over 20,000 youth, students and community members interact with artists in 200+ educational programs. The Hopkins Center commissions new works of dance or music each year, a commitment that fosters greater understanding and participation in, and excitement about, the arts. It also supports local and regional performers through free concert series serving thousands, and hosts an annual development residency for the New York Theatre Workshop. Serving economically and culturally diverse communities in northern New England, the Hopkins Center invests more than $200,000 annually in educational programming, bringing diverse traditions to a region with little exposure to diversity.

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Festival of China: During the month of October, the Kennedy Center is the destination for a groundbreaking experience in Chinese performing arts and culture. The Kennedy Center's Festival of China reveals fascinating visions of China that are ancient and new, familiar and exotic. Welcoming more than 800 performers from various regions throughout China as well as Hong Kong and the United States, this unprecedented celebration brings together East and West in a vibrant spectacle of the finest arts. At the nation's cultural center, more than 50 indoor and outdoor events will showcase the beauty, color, passion, and diversity of Chinese culture, including Peking opera, orchestral music, folk music, drumming, ballet, modern dance, theater, puppetry, acrobatics, contemporary film, photography, fashion, and visual arts.