Anchoring the Soul of a Community

The inaugural of California’s only gallery devoted to Southeast Asian art focuses on traditional Cambodian images of dancing goddesses, known as the Apsara, in paintings, sculpture, weavings and batik.

“Continuity and Change: The Apsara in Southeast Asian Culture” at the Arts of Apsara Gallery in Long Beach, is composed mostly of work by Cambodian artists, but it also displays images crafted by Thai and South China artists, said Bonnie Lowenthal, director of planning for the Long Beach-based United Cambodian Community, a nonprofit refugee assistance agency.

Six years in the making, the gallery is a dream fulfilled for the staff at the agency who worked to give the local Southeast Asian refugee community a place to celebrate and exhibit its culture.

The gallery, located in the heart of Little Phnom Penh on Anaheim Street, “is the soul of our community,” said Vora Kanthoul, executive director of the agency. Long Beach’s Cambodian community of about 35,000 is the largest outside Cambodia, Kanthoul said. A majority came to the United States to escape the dictator Pol Pot, who took power after U.S. troops left Southeast Asia in the mid-1970s.

Pol Pot’s troops killed about one third of the country’s 8 million people, targeting those with skills and education. Many of those who fled left penniless. In the United States, agencies such as the United Cambodian Community helped the refugees adjust to their new home.

“Once you get food, clothes, shelter, once you’re past that stage, you want to have an identity,” Kanthoul said. “The gallery serves as an anchor of our identity, as a reminder and guardian of our heritage.”

But the gallery is more than that, Kanthoul said. It also will exhibit the work of artists of other Southeast Asian nations, such as Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, in an attempt to preserve the traditional arts, dances, music and weavings.

And, he added, at least one show each year will be devoted to the art of the other ethnic groups that live in Long Beach. “We don’t want to be selfish,” Kanthoul said. “We want to make the gallery available to other cultures as well.”

The current show includes rubbings from Asian temples, antique weaving implements, intricately carved silver boxes and a brass sculpture of an orchestra playing traditional Cambodian instruments. Most of the exhibit’s pieces come from private collections, Lowenthal said, and the gallery is funded with private donations and grants.

Future events include workshops and lectures, demonstrations by Khmer weavers and performing arts presentations. The gallery also has a gift shop where arts and crafts made by local and international artists are sold.

The show continues until the end of June. Admission to the gallery, 2338 E. Anaheim St., Suite 105, is free. Information: (310) 433-2490.