That's the tagline for the first ever Asian Festival of Inclusive Arts, also known as Spotlight, which just ended a one-week run in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia. Epic Arts was offered a grant by the Nippon Foundation to bring together a diverse range of disabled and abled-bodied artists from all over Asia to put on a series of free performances to help raise awareness about disabled people and the arts.
Close to 5% of the population of Cambodia is disabled due to land mines, traffic and work accidents. There have been other "inclusive arts" festivals in Asia, and Hannah Stevens, the producer of Spotlight, got the idea for the festival after seeing a similar event in Hong Kong. Nothing on this scale had ever been done in Cambodia before, and receiving the grant from the Nippon Foundation paved the way and opened doors.
I was able to see two of the performances while I was there: Ramesh Meyyappan, a deaf actor from Singapore who was outstanding; and a Vietnamese contemporary dance troupe that includes hearing-impaired dancers, Getting Higher, performing a piece called Stories of Us (on YouTube). (I found out after I came home that Stories of Us was performed here in Seattle at On The Boards back in March, 2007.) Creative and inventive, both performances illustrate the point that Spotlight wants to make: that art and creative expression can challenge our ideas about disability, and give people who are typically marginalized the opportunity to be heard and seen and share their own, unique message.
Maybe some day we'll see one of these festivals in the U.S.
Close to 5% of the population of Cambodia is disabled due to land mines, traffic and work accidents. There have been other "inclusive arts" festivals in Asia, and Hannah Stevens, the producer of Spotlight, got the idea for the festival after seeing a similar event in Hong Kong. Nothing on this scale had ever been done in Cambodia before, and receiving the grant from the Nippon Foundation paved the way and opened doors.
I was able to see two of the performances while I was there: Ramesh Meyyappan, a deaf actor from Singapore who was outstanding; and a Vietnamese contemporary dance troupe that includes hearing-impaired dancers, Getting Higher, performing a piece called Stories of Us (on YouTube). (I found out after I came home that Stories of Us was performed here in Seattle at On The Boards back in March, 2007.) Creative and inventive, both performances illustrate the point that Spotlight wants to make: that art and creative expression can challenge our ideas about disability, and give people who are typically marginalized the opportunity to be heard and seen and share their own, unique message.
Maybe some day we'll see one of these festivals in the U.S.
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