Mekong Cultural Hub (MCH) was born from a desire and an energy among cultural practitioners within Asia to connect with one another. For too long, the predominant modes and spaces for networking, exchange and skills development were situated in places and contexts far from the realities, opportunities and challenges that practitioners face in their day-to-day life and work.
The simple act of connecting with peers from a neighboring country is still a rare and treasured opportunity for many practitioners, especially in the Mekong Region. The work MCH has been doing so far has been guided by inputs from practitioners selected from the region each year since 2018, and designated as ‘Fellows’ of MCH. In 2018 we held a workshop with a group of nearly 20 Fellows, to hear what priorities they wanted MCH to focus on. At that workshop, they told us “MCH should make us feel safe, relaxed, joyful and inspired,” it should “be a resource,” “make us visible,” “connect us,” and “enable us to be creative and reflect.”
We are delighted that five years on some of the words that Fellows have chosen to describe how they see MCH include “a home, “a search engine,” “an ally,” and “a field for experimentation.” As we go into the next five years, we will continue to listen to our Fellows, adapting our approaches to keep meeting their needs. While our network has grown across Asia, best demonstrated by nearly 400 people coming together for the first Meeting Point in 2021, we continue to center the Mekong Region in our programs. We also couldn’t do any of the work we do without the incredible network of local, regional and international peers and partners with whom we collaborate.
Nearly every project and program we have been able to run in the past five years has been designed and delivered with at least one partner. This reflects our spirit and commitment to work with and learn from others, and to connect networks and experiences for the good of our wider community. We are deeply grateful to everyone we’ve worked with and look forward to working with both new and old friends in the coming years. Despite the achievements of the past five years, the majority of the MCH Fellows network are working independently, with unstable income, operating on a project-to-project basis, juggling multiple jobs. They have a strong social conscience and a desire to make their work meaningful – but too often lack support, resources and training.
Networks like MCH fill a gap in the ecosystem of the arts in Asia, especially socially-engaged arts. MCH serves as a hub to distribute information, to consult with on-the-ground workers, offering solidarity and raising visibility of the great work happening at the intersection of arts and society in Asia. We take this responsibility seriously and will do more in the next years to spotlight the successes and the issues facing our network. Our core mission remains to empower our Fellows to bring to life their visions for a sustainable and inclusive Asia. And it is that which keeps us inspired. The greatest asset of MCH is our network, and it is their creativity, commitment and passion which continues to make this work worthwhile.
MEKONG CULTURAL HUB Reflections on the first 5 years
Mekong Cultural Hub (MCH) was established in 2018 to address a systemic lack of connectivity among artists and cultural practitioners in Southeast Asia and the Mekong Region by working with people whose own work is at the intersection of arts and society. The priorities of the hub were established after an initial mapping project had identified that individual cultural practitioners, artists, and arts organizations in the Mekong Region share many of the same interests, priorities, challenges and constraints. These challenges range from a lack of resources, sensitive social and political contexts, limited access to in-country training and development, and few opportunities to exchange knowledge and collaborate with peers from neighboring countries.
Threats to sustainability and the environment are increasingly tangible throughout the region. MCH set out to initiate projects and work on collaborations all around Asia. Whereas the central focus is on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, cultural practitioners from other parts of Southeast, East and South Asia have participated in one or more of the initiatives MCH has organized in its first five years. Since its foundation MCH has connected more than 150 practitioners from the region for professional exchange, co-creation and collaboration.
MCH is a sister organization of Cambodian Living Arts (CLA), which has been working in Cambodia since 1998. Both CLA and MCH are part of the Living Arts International (LAI) family. LAI is a nonprofit organization whose vision is for a peaceful, sustainable future with living arts as a catalyst for change. MCH, CLA and LAI share the belief that arts are at the heart of a vital society, and this spirit is reflected throughout our programs. MCH grew out of CLA’s Living Arts Fellows program and CLA’s involvement in the Young Cultural Innovators program of Salzburg Global Seminar.
This paper presents the main themes that emerged from research conducted in 2022 by external researchers with fellows, alumni, mentors, and partners. The aim of the research was to assess the MCH network as it approaches the end of its fifth year of development. Online feedback was requested through an opt-in survey to fellows and alumni who engaged with the Mekong Cultural Hub since 2018. The survey was sent to over 140 people and we received 46 responses, approximately a 32% response rate. The objective of the survey was to gather feedback on how people engage with MCH, the values they associate with this connection and their own insights into the organization and its work. Two focus groups were also held with MCH partners, collaborators, fellows and alumni.