CityNews – For the past month Traidhos Community for Learning, the Prem Tinsulanonda International School and Surface Arts have played host to a first of its kind – international arts residency programme in Chiang Mai.
Six international artists were selected and spent a month living and working on the Prem campus, delivering a plethora of student workshops, engaging in mentoring activities and producing work for a final exhibition at the H Gallery Chiang Mai. The group included a number of critically acclaimed artists who worked in mediums ranging from film and ‘soundscaping’ to illustration, painting and performance art: Emma Hammaren (Sweden), Jockel Liess (Germany), Taryn Takahashi (Peru), Ittirawee Chotirawee (Thailand) and Chris Czainski and Paul Czainski from the UK.
To conclude the residency programme, Traidhos and Surface Arts organised a family-focused community arts day offering arts workshops facilitated by the participating artists to Chiang Mai’s wider community.
“The arts are a vital means for stimulating dialogue and generating new ideas within any society. I think that an organisation such as ours has a responsibility to engage meaningfully with our immediate and wider community. This project has allowed us to do just that,” stated Alex Soulsby, the Traidhos Arts and Creative Projects Manager.
On 26 October an enthusiastic group of participants attended the day-long event, taking part in everything from mural making and poetry walls to sound-walks and Peruvian food art.
“The very fact that we had groups consisting of people from six or seven different nationalities collaborating in our workshops brilliantly demonstrates the power the arts have to break down cultural barriers and foster a greater sense of shared understanding,” says Soulsby.
Traidhos is committed to developing creative education programmes to a level where they serve as an example of international best practice and set the standard for creative education policy in South East Asia.
For more information about the programme of work being delivered and developed by Traidhos please email [email protected]