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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.410.1, Connecticut Historical S ...
SNEAP Year 5 Presentation: Lao Khene Playing
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.410.1, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

SNEAP Year 5 Presentation: Lao Khene Playing

Subject (Laotian)
Subject (Laotian)
DateJune 2003
Mediumpositive color film slides
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.410.1-.7
DescriptionPhotographs from a required public presentation of the Year 5 Southern New England Apprenticeship Program team in Lao khene playing with teaching artist Bounleaune Ketnavong and apprentices Khamphone Phonekeo, Sulisay Phonekeo, and Khone Thoumany.

The event was part of the Dayville, Connecticut Goodyear School multicultural event showcasing the apprenticeship between teaching artist Bounleaune Ketnavong and Khamphone Phonekeo in Lao khene playing, along with other Lao students at the school.

2015.196.410.1: Image of the apprenticeship team holding flowers and khenes. The apprentices stand with teacher Bounleaune Ketnavong and organizer Khamphone Phonekeo.

2015.196.410.2: Image of the apprentices and families attending the performance.

2015.196.410.3-.5: Images of teacher Bounleaune Ketnavong with organizer Khamphone Phonekeo.

2015.196.410.6: Image of the apprenticeship team holding flowers and khenes. The apprentices stand with teacher Bounleaune Ketnavong and organizer Khamphone Phonekeo.

2015.196.410.7: Image of organizer Khamphone Phonekeo with one of the apprentices and audience members.
NotesSubject Note: The Lao national instrument, khene, is a tall mouth organ made from multiple reed pipes bound together and held upright when played. Khene playing features centrally in traditional festivities and ceremonies in Laos, and at Lao New Year celebrations and family gatherings in New England. Because it can be difficult to learn the breath control, fingerings, melodies, and drones important to khene playing, few students have taken this on in the U.S.


Biographical Note: Based in Dudley, Massachusetts after immigrating to the U.S., khene player Bounleuane Ketnavong learned to play from his father, and passed on his skills to members of the Lao community in northeastern Connecticut during Years 5 and 6 (2002-2004) of CCHAP’s Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Khamphone Phonekeo served as Community Outreach Coordinator in the successful Lao Cultural Program at Killingly Central Schools. Students there participated in activities such as a traditional dance group and New Year Festival. Two of the boys from the group, Sulisay Phonekeo and Khone Thoummany, as well as Khamphone learned khene playing under this apprenticeship. The group presented their learning in a concert at the 2003 Dayville, Connecticut Goodyear School multicultural event showcasing the apprenticeship between teaching artist Bounleaune Ketnavong and Khamphone Phonekeo in Lao khene playing, along with other Lao students at the school. A young dancer, Tamala Phongsavad, learned Lao dance with Manola Sidara and she performed at this event. The apprentices also performed in the Lao New Year Celebration at Jefferson School in New Britain in 2004. Dayville and Killingly in eastern Connecticut had a sizeable Lao population in the 1990s and early 2000s, many were working at the Franklin mushroom farm. After the farm closed, many Lao moved elsewhere in Connecticut and other states.


Subject Note: The Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program is a CCHAP initiative since 1997 that fosters the sharing of community-based traditional (folk) artistic skills through the apprenticeship learning model of regular, intensive, one-on-one teaching by a skilled mentor artist to a student/apprentice. The program pairs master artists from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or Connecticut with apprentices from one of the other states, as a way to knit together members of the same community or group across state lines. Teaching and learning traditional arts help to sustain cultural expressions that are central to a community, while also strengthening festivals, arts activities and events when master/apprentice artists perform or demonstrate results of their cooperative learning to public audiences. The Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society manages the program in collaboration with the Folk Arts Program at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and independent folklorist Winifred Lambrecht who has a deep knowledge of the folk arts landscape of Rhode Island. Primary funding for the program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, with support also from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Institute for Community Research, and the Connecticut Historical Society.


Additional audio, video, and photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this community and its artists.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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